Westward!
by Shadsie
Summary: Post-TP. Zelda acquires new lands for Hyrule in the west and settlers are eager to claim it. Ilia and Colin join a caravan to seek a new life there. The road is dangerous. They find a guide in a wilderness wanderer, a man thought gone, the faded Hero.
1. The Labrynna Purchase

_**Disclaimer and Notes:**_ The Legend of Zelda is the intellectual property of Nintendo. This is a fan work not for profit. After the popularity of _The Great Desert_, I decided to try another Zelda story in a Western-ish vein. This time, I wanted to do something closer to canon, more in-universe. Takes place after Twilight Princess (which was a game with some Western-ish elements already). Got bored, needed something to write. Let's see if I can take it to a destination.

* * *

**WESTWARD!**

**A Legend of Zelda Fan Fiction by Shadsie**

**Chapter 1: The Labrynna Purchase **

Queen Zelda looked upon the many maps, charts and journals laid out upon the broad table. A pair of birds chirped from a small wicker cage. Several seedling plants rested in tiny pots of soil. Two national heroes sat across from their queen. They had returned from their two-and-a-half-year long expedition five days ago to great clamor. Many officials in the palace had doubted their survival, and, indeed, some of the original party had not returned, but the heads of the project were quite well, meeting with their sovereign. All-in-all, the Shad and Ashei Expedition had been a success.

"The Gerudo have been making quite a place for themselves in the western lands. Far from a lost race, there they are!" Sir Shad babbled. He could barely contain his excitement about all they'd learned. It was he – ever the scholar and eternal student, who had written the volumes of journals that were laid out on the table. It was he who had taken up the samples of the new species and he who had drawn most of the maps. His companion and bride, Ashei, had seen to the practical matters of survival in the wilderness. She was also the one to bring the "winged blue-grizzled bear" that was being kept in Zelda's garden into submission.

The queen of Hyrule listened with fascination. It seemed that the deal she'd made with the queen of Labrynna had not been such a bad deal, after all. Ambi had said that her people had no use for the wilderness between their borders and had ceded it to Zelda for something close to five-rupees an acre if one wanted to calculate the math. Ambi had also said something about the people of Hyrule being a brave people – ones that may succeed where her own people had no interest.

"Yes, yes," Shad continued. "The land is very green and fertile. I have not seen a richer country. However, it is a wilderness, your Highness. The Serenity Valley is the best prospect to start farmer's settlements. It is very wide with much fertile soil for crops and livestock, but much rough country lies between here and there, not to mention the Stone Dagger Pass – the weather on those mountains is even worse than Snowpeak. The land is filled with beasts. We lost five good men to the rigors. One man was shot through the throat by a bulbin."

Zelda looked sad for a moment. "Their names shall be remembered," she said simply.

"They knew the danger," Ashei added. "They were given dignified graves and rites due to good soldiers, even though they were civilians."

"On the whole," Shad spoke up, "Our people will benefit highly from this acquisition. The Labrynna Purchase is perhaps the wisest decision you have ever made for Hyrule."

Queen Zelda's expression took on a faraway look. "I do wish the Hero were around to see it," she sighed.

"We may have found him," Ashei said matter-of-factly. Zelda's long ears perked. "There's all kinds of rumors passed around them Gerudo. They tell tales of a man who lives alone in the forests and mountains. They say he has a horse that can run across the plains for three days nonstop, that he can climb sheer cliff-faces in an instant and control the wind. He's supposed to be a dead-shot with a bow, swift with a sword. They call him the 'Wolf' because it's said he can transform into one. Aside from all that silly stuff, Shad and I think the legends may just match our old friend."

"Link always was a mysterious character," Shad added.

"The missing Hero…" Zelda mused. She tried not to show her excitement over the wolf-transformation part of the rumor. Surely, they did not know the Hero's secret as she had. "Could it be that he was so near us all this time? Why would he not return to us?"

"Freedom," Ashei said simply. "That boy only became the Hero because he wanted to help us all and destiny had bound him to it. You would have made him a man of court. The people would have made him into a god. That nonsense would have chained him. A man of his caliber needs to be free. The wilderness is the natural place for a man with his feral eyes."

* * *

Wagon beds creaked as heavy sacks of dry goods were loaded into them. The air was filled with the scent of horse-sweat. Ilia finished checking the hitching on a pair of oxen and the cinch on the saddle of Colin's horse.

She turned to a large man with an open vest and a hairy chest. "The guide you hired had better be reliable, Sam," she said. "Where are we supposed to meet him?"

"Three days out of Ordon," Sam replied, "By Lynel Rock."

"I worry that the journey's going to be rough on the horses…"

"I anticipate we'll lose a few," Sam commented. He withered at the death-glare Ilia gave him. "It's just the facts, little lady. Caravans usually have casualties – if we're lucky, it'll be just a horse or two."

Ilia looked about ready to do violence. Sam couldn't believe he could feel fear from a lightly-built young woman. He towered over her. He thought of stories about wild animals that attacked beasts many times their own size. "Uh…" he recovered, "That's why we have you, right? I was told we wouldn't find a better horse-master in all of Hyrule. The more animals you get to the Valley safely, the more you get paid. Now where is our security man?"

"Hugging his mother," Ilia said, motioning toward the edge of the caravan. Everyone was ready and eager to roll out. Colin parted from his mother's arms, said something to his father and gave something to his little sister. He checked that the sword and shield on his back were buckled securely and vaulted up onto his bay mare.

"Thanks, Ilia," he said. "Are we ready to go?"

"We were waiting for you."

"Fair enough."

Sam bellowed and soon, many beasts and wagons were on the move. Colin and Ilia looked back upon their village and their friends and family waving, wishing them good luck, and praying for their safety. Most of the caravans heading west started or supplied themselves in Ordon, hence why the path to the Serenity Valley was being called the Ordon Trail. This time, Colin and Ilia had joined up with one.

It had been just over seven years since the end of the Twilight Crisis – or Twilight Invasion, as it was alternately called. After the Hero of legend and the Goddess' choosing had risen up, restored Hyrule to order and defeated an ancient evil, the kingdom had entered into an unprecedented era of peace. The children of Ordon had grown up. Ilia and Colin, in particular, had wanted to strike out and make lives for themselves outside of Ordon. Colin was only eighteen now, but had gained a reputation as a swordsman of some skill – having trained under his father. Ilia had become known as one of the best horse-trainers in Hyrule. Ilia had been hired by the trail boss of this caravan to take care of its animals. Colin had been hired on as security against beasts and boar-riders. They each had their own reasons for agreeing to it, though.

For Colin, perhaps it was the sheer adventure. He wanted to see the world beyond Ordon's borders. He'd been to Eldin province and to Lanayru, but he wanted to go farther, to see more. Ever since events in his life in the days of Twilight, he'd developed an adventuring itch. Perhaps it was because he'd wanted to be like his idol – the Hero who had come back to the village briefly after the Twilight ordeal was over and had taught him to ride, only to ride off to parts unknown and vanish.

Ilia wanted land of her own – her own ranch the likes of which she could never have in Ordon. She also had something of an adventurer's itch, but for her it was mostly a feeling she had that if she searched with courage and an open heart, that she would find a beautiful mare she once knew and her handsome rider, a long-gone best friend whom she missed every day.

Everyone in the caravan had dreams. There was the Taylor Family and the Flake Family – folks who would never be able to afford their own land in Hyrule, but could have their own properties in the west if they only made it there to take it. There was Dinah, a dancing girl who was their traveling entertainment but who was probably really running from the law. There were some folks who knew that new lands meant escape from discrimination. Some were after business opportunities. Some just liked the idea of creating a new world. A new land and new lives awaited them all.

Heading toward the border of Hyrule-proper and the beginning of the Purchase was largely uneventful. The ten-wagon caravan rolled past the imaginary line separating their home country from the utter wilderness with ease. It was, indeed, three days out of Ordon when they came to Lynel Rock. The evening mist was thick as the caravan made camp.

The trail boss and the horse-master rode outside of the clustered wagons, searching for the "reliable wilderness guide" that had been hired to help them through the untamed country.

"So, where is he?" Ilia asked skeptically. "Maybe he just took your money and ran."

"I didn't pay him yet," Sam replied, "I ain't that stupid. I just made a pact with him. They say that this one never breaks a promise."

"You can't be sure of that," Ilia groused. "I hope we can get through it without him. I don't trust crazy mountain-men. He's probably forgotten about you and is off on his own business."

"The guy I hired is the one folk call Wolf. They say he's led several caravans to the Valley safe and sound. Heroics are something of a hobby of his, they say. And he's really pricey, but doesn't take his payment until the destination is reached."

Ilia felt her horse's muscles quiver beneath the saddle. The animal's ears perked and her head darted to a line of trees. "Easy, Jimmy, easy." At once, Sam's steed and hers whinnied, which stirred noise from the horses within earshot back at the camp.

Out of the woods, bathed in the deepening golden light of sunset was a rider on a horse. The rider was scruffy, clothed in leather and furry hides. The horse… it had been years, but Ilia would know that horse anywhere.

"Epona?" she whispered. She took a long look at the face of the rider. To her surprise, it was clean-shaven, or very much a face that had never known a beard on someone too old not to grow one. The man's hair was scruffy, the nose a little crooked, scars on the cheeks, but those eyes – even during the time during the Twilight Invasion when she had lost her memories, the image of those eyes had stayed with her.

She was filled with many emotions in that moment. She did not know whether to be insane with joy or filled with fury. Relief for his life, or anger that he'd never even bothered to write home. What had he been doing all these years? All of Hyrule had been looking for their Hero and here he was, running around in no man's land.

"Link!" she yelled. It was a yell, a scold; nonetheless, she dismounted her horse and ran to him.

"I-Ilia?" the surprised man said. He slipped off his mare.

Ilia, tears streaming down her face, squeezed him, buried her face in his chest, then reached up and touched his face. "It's really you, isn't it?"

Link sighed.

And she punched him, square in the chest.

"What was that for?" the young man coughed.

She punched for him again, but he dodged. "For leaving….without saying goodbye!" she sobbed, "without writing…without letting anybody know where you were! Father told me he was sure you were dead. Dead! Why did you leave? All of Hyrule wants to know where you are."

"Wait a minute, little lady," Sam asked, "Just what is going on here? You know our guide?"

"Yeah," Link said, looking down and away. "We were… childhood friends."

"More than that," Ilia said, regaining her composure. "I mean, not more than that… for us, but…" she shook her head, "Link…"

Realization dawned in Sam's eyes. "Link. THE Link? As in the Hero of Twilight who just up and disappeared?"

"Don't tell anyone, okay?" Link asked. "I was… rather growing fond of my life out here."

"It's not fair," Ilia moaned. "Why did you just disappear?"

"I wanted to be free," Link said.

"I didn't recognize that scruffy mess riding Epona at first, but I'd know that mare anywhere."

Link offered Ilia another hug, which she accepted, and smiled.

* * *

_**The trail winds ever onward…**_


	2. A Man Called Wolf

**WESTWARD!**

**Chapter 2: A Man Called Wolf **

Link was introduced to the caravan that was to be under his guidance. Ilia, Colin and Sam knew his true name and identity. The rest did not. The three agreed to call him by his chosen nickname of "Wolf" in front of others.

To get Sam to agree to the secret-keeping required Link to take a dock in pay. What he didn't tell the trail boss is that he would have taken this job on for free since old friends of his were involved. Truthfully, he did not have much use for rupees, except in his dealings with the Gerudo, the occasional times he rode into Hyrule-proper to deal with people in the outlying towns, and when he used his rupee-powered magic armor – which was rarely.

The caravan was full of interesting people. There were the families – the children were especially fascinated by their wilderness guide.

"What kind of skin is this?" little Billy Taylor asked, fingering the pelt draped over Link's shoulder as he sat down on a rock before a morning campfire two days after he'd joined the group.

"It's a wolf's hide," the man answered.

"Did you hunt it?" his sister, Sari, asked.

"No," Link said calmly. "It is from a friend of mine. He was old. I took care of him when he was sick and he died right in my lap. I wanted to keep a part of him with me, so I took his skin to keep me warm. He was a lone wolf, chased from his pack. It's hard out in the wild and lone wolves usually do not last very long." The former Hero leaned over and pointed to a rocky outcrop in silhouette in the distance. "Sometimes, if you look and listen real hard, you'll see his spirit up there on that ridge and you'll hear him howling."

"Really?" Billy asked.

"Really."

"What was his name?"

"I called him Gray."

"What about the other skins you wear?" Sari inquired.

"Animals I've hunted and ate… a bear I had to fight off. Monsters I slew."

The children's eyes were wide.

"Are there lots of monsters out here?" Sari asked, her chubby little face going pale.

"Don't worry!" her older brother assured. "Mr. Sam hired Mr. Wolf to keep us safe, and we have Colin, too."

"Wolf!" someone called.

Link looked up to see Colin. "We were going to spar, remember?" the young man asked.

"Yeah," Link answered, getting up. The children took his former seat, preparing to watch.

Colin unsheathed his sword and Link unsheathed his. Link's sword was a faithful companion from his days of Chosen Heroism – a sword crafted by Colin's father. Colin's weapon was a similar model. The two men danced around each other and went in for mock kills, careful with the live steel. As the blades clanged against one another, people in the caravan looked up from their morning work and preparations.

"Can you believe that I used to think this was scary?" Colin asked.

Link sheathed his sword and gave his friend a polite bow. "You've done a lot of growing up," he said, smiling. "You fight like a soldier – but like a recruit, really. You've yet to see real battle."

As the two sat down to rest and talk privately, Colin's face held a look of disappointment. "I've dealt with small monsters," he said, "Just plants and bone-dogs. I'm still better-trained than anyone else Sam could find."

"Your father has done a fine job," Link replied, "but there are things out here that are very dangerous."

"Like bulbins and moblins?"

"Yes. Bulbins are particularly skilled in archery. Moblins know the ways of the spear. They both prey upon the wagon-trains. They like to take the food and the animals. Some tribes like to kill people just for fun."

"So, I should not hesitate if we run into them. I should behead them or stick them straight through the heart."

"Their hearts are located in the same place as in a human, sometimes a little lower. I have a very effective sword-move I can show you to end one that you've knocked to the ground before it gets back up. I will tell you something that may make you hesitant to slay them, however, but it's something I think you need to know."

"What's that?"

Link sighed deeply. "Bulbins and moblins are not mindless creatures."

"Come again?" Colin inquired, "I thought they were monsters."

"They are peoples, like humans, Hylians, the Gorons and the Zora. They have a rather rough nature, but they are different from most magic creatures and the undead."

"How did you find this out?"

"Well, there is a moblin tribe out in the deep woods that I'm friendly with. They're led by a matriarch named Madra. She and her tribe actually helped me out once when I was wounded. As for the bulbins...there is one tribe that is friendly to me, as well. I gained that honor by defeating their chieftain in battle multiple times. Do you remember that big boar-rider who captured you as a kid?"

"How could I forget?"

"Well, I whooped him a few times and he decided that I deserved respect because of it. His tribe has sworn fealty to me ever since. They are friendly to Hyrule, but have retreated to the western lands because they could never get Queen Zelda's troops to stop hunting them. The other bulbin tribes, however, are dangerous. King Bulbin is not king over all. His tribe is almost constantly at war with the others. King's tribe doesn't touch the caravans and will probably be of great help to us if we run into them because I am with you. He'll greet me with insults as that is their way, but he sees me as a worthy person."

"And the other tribes?"

"The other bulbin tribes… if you've got a bow, shoot to kill. They _will_ do everything to murder you – and all of us."

"I will do what is necessary to protect everyone," Colin said, "just like you." The young man paused for a moment and then addressed Link again. "I almost died back then, you know – saving Beth."

"I know," Link said, "You risked your life. You were very brave."

"No, Link," Colin insisted, "I mean, after you saved me, the shaman in Kakariko…he told you I was going to be alright so you could deal with the Gorons. He lied. He thought I was going to die from all the internal damage I'd suffered. He wanted you to be able to focus on the Gorons, so he told you I was going to live. I surprised him when I actually did."

Link nodded gently. "It was good that he lied to me, then. I would have stayed by your side, worrying over you and feeling like a failure. The Gorons would have suffered much longer, especially their leader, who was under a dark power I had to break."

"Mr. Renado said the Rites of Farore over me after you left."

"That bad?"

"Yeah, but I lived. I learned not to be afraid anymore. Being close to death wasn't so bad because I'd saved Beth and that felt great. I finally understood what my dad had been trying to teach me. He came and saw me in Kakariko when I was getting better but still in bed and you were away. When he'd heard the story from everyone, he was so proud. I'd done something good – really good. It didn't matter that I was hurt."

"How is Beth these days?"

"Studying medicine and still dreaming of a prince to come and sweep her off her feet."

"The journey ahead will be rough, even if we are lucky," Link said solemnly. "Give me your sword and I will bless it for you."

"Uh – okay," the teenager said as he took the sword off his back.

Link pulled the blade from its scabbard and laid it on his knees. Placing his hands upon the blade, careful of its edges, he closed his eyes and said a short prayer: "Din, make this blade swift, strong and true. Nayru, give its wielder the wisdom to know when to use it and when to refrain. Farore, make this blade merciful to the lives it must take."

"Where did you learn that?" Colin asked.

"A Great Fairy. What's with that look? Don't you believe me?"

"Of course, Link," Colin said with a smile. "I guess you saw all kinds of things as the Chosen Hero."

"You don't know the half of it."

"All right! All right!" Sam bellowed, "Rollin' out!"

"Hmm," Link said, looking at the eastern horizon, "the sun's been up for an hour already, we should have already gotten going – but I was glad for the spar and the talk."

"Me, too," Colin said as he curried-off and tacked up his horse. Link had tacked up Epona earlier. Colin wondered, sometimes, if that horse had supernatural powers because in all the time he'd known the two, Link had a bad habit of leaving the animal tacked much of the time, forgetting to take the saddle off her after his work. Ilia used to yell at him all the time for it. The mare never developed any sores from it, or any other problems and she was always obedient not to roll when she had gear on her.

Link mounted Epona and rode up to the lead, leaving Colin to fall back to the rear. Those were their agreed-upon positions. Colin would lag by the last supply-wagon, giving him a good watch on the entire group and protecting the rear. Link was to ride up front by the wagon driven by Sam and Ilia. There was a predestined route in mind, but as their guide, Link was to make sure they were on the right path – given natural changes in the land season to season and the caravan's new-ness to the land in general they needed his sharp eyes. They would take his word if he needed to take them in another direction due to danger or opportunity.

"It's about four or five days out to the summer camp of the Gerudo I know," Link said. "They'll let us rest and they have some fine trade-goods for anyone who wants to do trading or commerce. They're the Tantari Tribe because they take to the Tantari Desert out in the northwest during the fall and winter months – they take to the plains in the summer. Better hunting."

"Gerudo, pheh!" Sam spat. "By hunting you mean thievery, right?"

"Nope," Link said, shaking his head. "Their ancestors may have been big into that, but they mostly stick to gathering and game these days, and to trade with the new settlers recently. This place is the green, free land they'd been seeking for generations. Don't worry, the Tantaris respect me so they're pretty good to anyone with me. They will rob you blind if you are rude to them, though, so watch your manners."

"Aren't they all women?" Ilia asked.

"Yes and no," Link answered her.

"Didn't you kill their king?"

"Ganondorf." Link sighed. "That ancient sorcerer was their ancient king, Ilia. He had no place in the modern world. He is… the reason why a generation ago, the King of Hyrule had the Gerudo slaughtered and driven from their lands – it's why they are out here. They are the remnants. It is amazing that they do not seek revenge… their leader, their male – Xanboru, is a very serene man. And their women… really…uh… like human and Hylian men."

Ilia's face developed a sour look. "Oh, Link, really!"

Link's face took on a deep blush. "No…I didn't!..I!"

"You do have that lady-killer look," Sam said, "I wouldn't be surprised. How many brats you father for 'em, eh?"

Link shook his head. "None, absolutely none."

Sam laughed heartily. "Iffn' your sly, I have a friend who's been looking for a guy like you."

Link's face blanched. "No, not that either. You don't understand."

Ilia punched the larger man by her side in the arm. "Sam, stop that! You're bothering him. If he quits on us, we're sunk!"

Link laughed. "I'm not afraid of a little teasing. I can't say I haven't been tempted by the Gerudo ladies. Some of the men in this train will probably make themselves fathers by the time we break camp with them. Kau will have nothing to worry about – married and a Zora, nor will Rock – they don't bother with Gorons. The married women will probably have nothing to worry about. The Tantari tribe has some pretty strict proscriptions on breaking bonds of faith – even with men who might want to. They want donors to their stock to be single, unattached. Occasionally, they even fall in love with the fathers of their daughters."

"Do they always have daughters?" Ilia asked.

"Not always. If one has a son, he'll carry his father's genetics – at least as long as their king lives, and Xanboru's still young. They'll usually try to track down the father to give his son to him. If they can't, they'll raise him as one of their own – Gerudo who are not-Gerudo. The Gerudo didn't do this in generations past. Seeing as Hyrule tried to wipe them out, they have no choice in the matter anymore. They cannot go back to their ancestral desert. They really aren't as big on seduction as the old stories make them out to be – not since they have a reliable king. Xanboru and his many wives are refreshing and strengthening their blood. His eldest is Colin's age. The last time I met their camp, they had a little one, two-summers old and very sweet. She really liked Epona."

"Good girl," Ilia commented.

"Oh, you'd like these folks, Ilia," Link said. "They adore horses. Some of the tribeswomen are better riders than I am."

"But you're the best rider I've ever seen – even if you are careless sometimes and used to hurt poor Epona riding fences."

"You may want to do some trading at the camp," Link said with a smile. "You're the horse-master here, so you've got to know that some of these Hylian ponies you've brought along will develop problems."

"I picked good, strong horses!" Ilia protested.

"Yes, but you did so without knowing the country. The Goron rock-drafter pulling the back-wagon will be just fine. They're tough and he's in good shape. Some of the Hylian mustangs are good and will be especially useful when we reach the cold mountains. Epona has brought me through innumerable dangers. Colin's mare isn't going to make it – not with the scanty grass on the plains ahead – not unless you're prepared to pick up several wagonloads of hay. I wouldn't graze a flock of Ordon goats on the nasty weeds we're going to be seeing! The Tantari tribe can take care of a horse like Colin's – keep her around camp, use her to train their children to ride, but what he's going to want and what you're going to want are some swift Gerudian horses. They can live on nearly nothing and are swift in battle if we run into hostile creatures."

"I'll think about it," Ilia said, "I'll have to see these animals first."

"Speaking of animals, I'm going to want to do some hunting once we make camp. Dried meat will stretch our supplies. I'm sure we could all use a little fresh meat, too. I'll take some of the men – Brandon and Pete should suffice. There's lots of deer in this country, good venison."

"Hunting," Ilia said with a cringe. "I mean, I knew we would have to, but I didn't want to think about it."

"You were always… so good with animals, Ilia," Link said gently. "Don't ever change that gentleness…"

He spurred Epona and rode on ahead.

"Good to have a practical-minded guide," Sam commented.

"He's an ex-herdsman," Ilia said, "and a survivor. He's always been practical and tough, even when we were children. I'm glad I've found him again."

"There's something special about him, isn't there? Something a little left of normal."

"He's free – simply put. Just free."

* * *

_**The trail winds ever onward… **_


	3. Destiny, Manifest and Otherwise

**Westward!**

**Chapter 3: Destiny, Manifest and Otherwise**

"Our poor, dear Wolf…" the Gerudo king, Xanboru, said before the bonfire, "our other names for him are the Chase Hero and the Virgin."

"Hey!" Link yelped. Ilia, seated beside him, stifled a snort. Colin, sitting nearby, blushed as a young Gerudo woman shot a smile in his direction.

"It is nothing to be ashamed of," one of the Xanboru's wives said as she moved closer to her husband, holding his toned, tan arm, "though there are many of us who would have Wolf, his dedication is admirable. We understand the Hylian beliefs about lifelong pledges and how some chose to save themselves. Our people simply lack that luxury. Most of us prefer the willing."

"Prefer?" Colin inquired.

"A few of us can get a little overzealous when 'in cycle.' Lilan tried to ravage Wolf the last time he visited us. He fought and it took three of our warriors to pry her from him. It was fortunate that he wore thick pants that were not easy to tear."

"If you'll excuse me, this is embarrassing," Link groused as he got up. "I'm going to patrol the edge of camp. I'll be back when you've finished talking about my love life and lack thereof."

"Wolf!" Ilia entreated as he quickly walked off.

"Don't get up," Xanboru ordered her. "Let him go. I can tell that you wish to comfort him, but it is futile."

"Futile? You embarrassed him! You hurt him!"

"He is hurt," Xanboru sighed, "but it is a pain that runs deep. 'Virgin' is quite an honorable title to us; it is something that bespeaks fortitude. I do not know why some of the Hylia race find it so troubling. You see, the Wolf is in mourning still. The wolves of the mountains around here mate for life and are not easy to recover if they lose a partner. The Wolf we know is not so different."

"He… had someone?" Ilia asked.

"Yes," Xanboru said with a nod of his handsome head. "He told me about her. She was someone he'd met during the Twilight War in your country. They saw each other through many battles."

"I don't remember him having a girlfriend," Colin said, speaking up, "then again, with being kidnapped, and Ilia missing, and almost being killed and spending so much time in bed, I would have missed a lot. That time changed me – it changed all of us… I just don't remember him mentioning anything to me about chasin' girls."

Ilia hung her head. "I didn't remember much at all. The trauma caused a partial amnesia. L- Wolf… Wolf brought my memories back."

"Esperanza," Xanboru said to the woman at his side, "Bring some food."

The woman got up. Xanboru leaned forward. "It would seem that his sorrow must run deep to not speak to his closest friends."

"He left our village soon after the crisis was over," Ilia explained, "I suppose it left scars on us all. Li-uh, Wolf… never was one to share his pain. He was always tough. Even as a little kid, whenever he got a scrape or something, he'd quietly take care of it rather than cry."

"He weeps on the inside," Xanboru said.

"Did she… die?" Ilia asked. "The person he told you he met?"

"No," the Gerudo leader said. "He and she were of different worlds. She had to return to hers. He tried to find her for a while. That is how he first met the Tantari Tribe. He'd learned from a friend of his – a scholar - that our people and the people of the one he loved were, in a way, connected. He was hoping to find her again. It was impossible, but he became our friend, anyway. He has stood with us against Bulbin raiders and fought with us in our games. His prowess in battle is quite impressive. Your caravan should feel very safe with him in it."

"Oh, we do," Ilia said with a nod.

"Why is it that you call him the Wolf?" Colin asked innocently. "Ilia and I know him by another name, but we promised to use his nickname in mixed company."

"Ah, yes," Xanboru replied. "I know his true name – it is a famous name and that is why he does not wish to use it. He does not want the fame.

"He's got beast-eyes," Neeru said. Neeru was the girl who'd been making dove-eyes at Colin and was Xanboru's eldest daughter. She was not "in cycle," however, and would have been forbidden to take him into her tent, anyway as her father felt her too young to breed as yet. "That man's eyes are fierce like those of a wolf."

"He speaks with them, as well," Xanboru said. "He'll howl to the mountains and get a whole pack replying. There's another legend about him, but it is a silly story, for children. He likes to tell it to our children."

"What's that?" Colin asked.

"He says he can turn into a wolf," Neeru laughed. "He likes to scare our little ones with werewolfos stories."

"That man is the very same one I knew as a girl," said someone who was approaching the bonfire. A very old woman shambled along in thick robes. She moaned as she sat down next to her king.

"Guinan," the man said.

"Can't an old woman rest her ancient bones beside the fire?" she asked.

Colin raised his head as he heard giggling behind him. A pair of people were dancing around in the dark, holding each other and spinning. It was one of the Gerudo tribeswomen and one of the caravan's young men, Brandon. He was just a few years older than Colin and the pair had just come out of one of the tents. Brandon's clothes were wrinkled and loose, his shirt not tucked in.

"We're leaving in the morning," Colin said absentmindedly. "Brandon talks about falling in love. I guess he got his wish."

"Love, pah!" Guinan spat, "That boy cannot stay with us… his like would never survive. If he leaves in the morning, he won't see her again – not unless the next year brings her a son. I hope he's aware of that."

"I don't think he is…" Colin trailed off.

"Some folk think we're just a stop-off for love," Guinan said. "Victims of the biology Farore gave us, we are."

"I think I could stand being a proper Hylian wife," Neeru said, again looking at Colin, "Devoted to one…if he were the right person."

"Bad image… part of why our people were almost wiped out," Guinan said. She drew a small pendant from her robes and stroked it in an act almost like superstitious devotion. It was a clear glass oval in which was encased a braided lock of hair – gray with red streaks.

"That's pretty," Ilia said, "what is it?"

Guinan held it out for her to look, careful of the cord that bound it around her wrinkled neck. "It is a lock of hair from our ancient leader, Nabooru. She gave it to my mother before she died – right before she died."

"Hmm?"

"I am over three centuries old, child," Guinan began. "Not all of us live so long, but with the right health-spells and right eating, a Gerudo woman can live long, indeed. I am the eldest of the Tantari Tribe."

"She is our medicine-woman," Xanboru explained, "high in wisdom and revered."

"Granny's a survivor," Neeru said in proud awe.

"Indeed, I am," the old woman said. "I was one of those taken to the Arbiters' Grounds."

"B-But…" Ilia stuttered, "That place was for Hyrule's worst criminals!"

"I was a young woman," Guinan explained, "Just a young woman, with my mother and my aunts. The place was a defilement. The Grounds were once our ancient Spirit Temple where we gave devotion to the Goddess of the Sands – a manifestation of Din, but the Hylia didn't understand that – called her an idol, a wicked goddess, somehow got it in their empty heads that we made human sacrifices to her. The first of us to be executed there was supposedly the 'great' Ganondorf, whom we had already rejected. You know all about him, I'm sure. Doesn't seem the execution took, now did it? After that, our people had peace, for a time – for as long as the Hero of Time lived – not long, the poor boy - and for as long as Queen Zelda of Destiny survived."

"Of Destiny…" Ilia mouthed. There had been a long tradition in the Hylian Royal Family of naming firstborn daughters – or granddaughters as the case may be, "Zelda." None knew anymore how this tradition had started – supposedly from a single princess who'd been much loved and revered. Much like the Sacred Heroes, the monarchs had particular titles to distinguish them. So far, there had been a "Hero of Time" and at least one other before him, known, that some titled "Of the Sky" or "The Skyward Hero." Link was being called – in Hyrule – the "Hero of Twilight," though some referred to him as the "Hero of Light." The current Queen Zelda had accepted, upon her coronation, the title "Zelda of Nocturne."

"What happened after that…" Guinan said with a shudder, "Most of it I will not tell a young, pretty thing like you. I would not want to give you my nightmares. King Wexley Nohansen, the grandson of Zelda of Destiny, upon taking the throne knew only a little of the history of our people. He knew enough to know that Ganondorf was from us. He chose to purge us from the land – to destroy all of us, down to the very last, most innocent and harmless child."

"Full-genocide," Colin breathed.

"Yes," Guinan answered. "Wexley was afraid. He feared another like Ganondorf would rise. He rounded up all of our tribes and brought us to the Arbiters' Grounds for systematic execution. One could say it was because he feared our genes, but the truth is, he just hated us. He thought we were lesser beings, and a corrupting influence. Nabooru… gave this lock of hair to my mother right before being taken to her execution. She wanted us to remember her strength and thought that since she was a Sage for a while – at least in the time-outside-of-time she always talked about, that a piece of her might bring us good luck. She was killed by hanging. She enabled us to escape our prison, however. Nabooru had managed to smuggle some black powder into the cell my family was in and hid it beneath the floorboards. All it needed was a simple spark. She went to her execution easily because it served as distraction enough for us to use her little gift. We freed other families and fled west."

"That's so sad…" Ilia whispered.

"Xanboru is Nabooru's descendant," Guinan stated. "He is the first male to be born to us since Ganondorf. He carries Nabooru's courage."

"You do me too much compliment, old one," Xanboru said.

Guinan looked off into the night, past the fire. "The coming of the settlers has been of help to us in this era, but I fear what it might bring. I fear with many coming from Hyrule, the past may repeat itself. Our people may fade away."

"We… don't want war at all," Ilia said, "at least not our group. We're just seeking a new life. Our Goron wants to stake out new mountains, for his people are increasing and crowding up the Death Mountain area. The Zora couple we have with us… the people of Hyrule will not let them settle in waters outside the Zora's Domain, so they seek freedom. We have a pair of 'sisters' with us – Sherry and Terri. They aren't really sisters, if you know what I mean. They have trouble being themselves in Hyrule proper. I want to have my own land, something not owned by my father. Colin… just wants to see what he could see. Our wagon train doesn't want strife with anyone we all want…"

"Is to be free," Guinan finished for her, "Just like we do."

She clasped her wrinkled hands over Ilia's and looked to the edge of camp, where Link stood, looking up at the sickle-moon.

"I knew that boy in another life," she said. "He is your Hero. The Hero's soul does not rest like most normal souls do. I have lived long enough to see many lifetimes come and go. Known reincarnates are relatively rare. He does not know who he was, though. He probably sees images of past life in dreams, but he may never know the truth. I was a friend to his past self – when I was a child, before the purges. He would have never let them happened had he lived."

"Had he lived..?"

"The Hero of Time died as one would expect of a Hero – he gave his life to protect another. I think that's just the way of the Goddesses' Heroes. They complete their Great Task and then the soul is called to rest early, so as to prepare it for the next Great Task. I've seen the way you look at our Wolf. Careful of that, child. He may not last very much longer."

"He's a survivor," Ilia said. "He always has been."

"With good people like him… like you… I'm not as worried about Hyrule's future, or ours as I used to be. There was a time when our warriors would never have let your kind into our camp – at least not a wagon train with women and families. People like the Wolf, like you and your friends… you're… you're good people."

With that, Guinan patted Ilia's hands, then got up and shambled off. Ilia was left to watch her go and wonder at her words.

* * *

_**The trail winds ever onward… **_


	4. The Sacred Scarred

**Westward!**

**Chapter 4: The Sacred Scarred**

A week and a half out of the Gerudo camp, people in the caravan began getting sick. It started slowly. The Taylor children got runny noses and fatigue. It was thought of as nothing, perhaps the result of too much nose-picking or a simple summer cold. A few days after the children's first symptoms, almost everyone else displayed the same and came down with a nasty, liquid cough.

The caravan stopped near a clear-running stream to rest and assess the situation. Members of the group started sucking down their supply of potions like they were sweet milk. Only humans and Hylians were affected by the sickness. Kau and Maru – the young Zora couple, remained healthy. Rock likewise kept perfect health for his Goron physiology made him immune to organic diseases. Among the Hylians and humans, three members of the party remained strong – Colin, Ilia and Link.

"Why aren't you three sick?" Sam wheezed as Link pounded the trail boss' back to help him clear his lungs. "Heard-heard of wagon trains getting' sick like this – everyone dyin' or just wishin' they had and losing time. Zora and Gorons don't get sick with human bugs, but you're all just fine. What's your connection?"

"Ordon," Ilia said bluntly. "Link, Colin and I grew up together. This illness… it has all the marks of Faron Influenza."

"Faron Influenza?" Sam yelped, or he would have yelped if he was not too busy coughing. "This is bad. I heard it wiped out half of Ordon province many years back. You three… are survivors?"

Ilia nodded somberly. Colin looked toward the ground. Link's eyes took on a dark look that was deeper than black.

"Colin was a baby back then." Ilia continued. "He never caught it. It's said that some people have a natural immunity to it. Those who don't can catch it only once. They either die or survive and if they live, they cannot catch it again. I never caught it. My mother died when the epidemic hit Ordon. Link… Link was orphaned."

"He didn't catch it, either?"

"I did," Link spoke up. "I caught it and I almost died."

* * *

"_Medicine-time. Come on, Link, wake up." _

_Ilia held the small cup in her tiny hand. It was filled with a red liquid, syrupy and bitter. It was made from some kind of mushroom. The girl knew that her friend wasn't really asleep. Link hadn't been sleeping much lately, spending nights up coughing and days half-awake in a daze of fever and pain. _

"_Go 'way," groaned the pile of blankets atop the shaggy goat-skin that served as a bed. Ilia shook the pile with her free hand. She was intent upon her mission her father and the other adults had given her. All help was needed right now, even that of a little child. _

_The pile of blankets hunched up and shrank away from her. She shook harder. _

"_I know it's bitter," the little girl said, "but it will help you get better." _

_The blankets shifted and the boy faced her, raising his head a little. He hadn't been able to even do that a few days ago. The broth Mr. Rusl had gently poured down his throat had restored a little of the boy's strength. Still, his face was a pitiful sight. His skin was pale, his nose was wet and his eyes were sunken and glazed over in pain. He coughed and wretched with the sudden movement he'd forced his body to make. _

"_Careful!" Ilia exclaimed. "If you can't hold the cup yourself, I can help you to drink it – like the other day." _

"_I don't want any!" Link whined. _

"_But you need it to get better." _

"_I don't wanna get better!" Link hmmphed as he curled his blankets around himself and turned back to facing the wall. _

"_Why don't you want to get better?" Ilia implored, "Link…" _

"_Mamma's gone. Papa died. Then Nico – right in front of me, too. I watched him die. I'm alone… I want to go to where they are." _

"_Link, please…" Ilia began to weep. "Link, you aren't alone. You know Mr. Rusl and Missus Uli want to take you in. I lost my Mama, too. If you die, it'll hurt us more." _

"_I wanna be with Mama and Papa!" _

"_If you go…" Ilia said softly, "I'll have no one to play with anymore. All the other kids are too little. I'll be lonely." _

_Link shifted back around and looked up at her. _

"_Don't you wanna grow up to be strong like Mr. Rusl?" she asked. _

_The boy's ears perked and his eyes look on a hint of life. Ilia held out the cup. "The medicine will make you feel better. Daddy said he put something in it to help you sleep and that'll help you get better faster. Please take it. I hate seeing my best friend in so much pain." _

"_H-help me, please?" _

_Ilia held the cup to Link's lips and gently tilted it the way she'd been taught to. She watched as Link drank every drop. He lay back down and closed his eyes. She straightened out his blankets and tucked them up near his chin. She watched and listened as his breathing evened out and grew easy._

_

* * *

_

Ilia shook her head, shivering with the memory as she wandered toward one of the supply-wagons, listening to the coughing, groaning and other noises made by the sick. Of memories brought back to her of her childhood – memories she had lost at one point – not all of them were very pleasant. Memories of the Faron Flu Epidemic in Ordon were ones she sometimes wished had stayed gone, but she nonetheless found them useful. She knew what natural materials made for good medicines to ease victims' pain. She knew that the leaves from a certain type of tree could be mashed to make a paste that could be rubbed on a person's chest to ease coughing. She knew how to coax children into taking their potions.

Unfortunately, she also knew the signs of the terminal and about a third of the people in the caravan were showing those signs. It was about seven days since the wagon train had been stalled. No one was moving forward like this. It dawned on the young woman that when she'd been little, she'd been a big part of saving the life of the boy who'd grow up to become a Hero. As she neared the supply-wagon, she wondered if he'd come down with a fever, too – although she knew that he could not catch this strain of flu again. Link was rummaging through the wagon like a man Poe-sessed.

"What on Din's green earth are you doing?" she asked as he inspected several empty bottles and jars he had set out before him on a part of the wagon's bed.

"Bottles," he replied, "I need bottles – as many as can be spared. Not the kind for beer and drinks. I need ones with wide mouths and corks or something else to use as stoppers. Fruit-canning jars are perfect."

"Why?" Ilia questioned. "We have some empties, but what do you need them for? You seem…frantic."

"That's because I am," Link replied as he inspected a jar that had once contained last summer's peaches from east-Hyrule that had been eaten sometime during the trip. He slipped the jar into a pouch on his belt that looked entirely too small for it. The jar disappeared inside its opening. The pouch did not budge or bulge.

"How did you..?" Ilia began.

"It is a special item," Link informed her calmly. "It works on some sort of relative time-dimensions-in-space system, something like that. It's a magical item, given to me by the Light Spirits. I do not wear the Hero's Clothes anymore, but I still wear this. There are many things in this pocket, things I could not have completed my journey as the Hero without. There are limits to it. It doesn't hold unlimited rupees, for example – I guess the Goddesses didn't want me to get greedy. I can fit many bottles into it now, because they are needed for a good cause."

The coughs and groans of the sick sounded in the air. Colin could be seen in the distance, patrolling the perimeter of the camp on foot, ready to defend the defenseless should the need arise. His frustration with the suffering of the people he was guarding manifested thickly in his steps.

"Fairies," Link said after a pause. "I'm heading out to hunt fairies."

"What?" his companion asked.

"I'd like you to come with me, if you can. I could use the extra hands."

"Fairies are rare. Most people are lucky to see one once a lifetime! Stories of ancient times had them being sold in stores, but it hasn't been like that in at least a hundred years! How do you expect to find wild fairies?"

"I know of a spring near here," Link explained. "Hopefully, it is not dried up. It comes and goes depending upon the rains. The fairies… they like me, Ilia. They appear for me. I am in tune enough with their magic that they do not hide from me, but they still don't like being caught, so we'll have still have to creep up on them. Maybe we can catch enough of the little buggers to make everyone healthy again."

"That is how you stayed alive as the Hero, isn't it?" Ilia responded slowly, realization hitting her. "You carried fairies with you into battle to heal your wounds. They're supposed to be able to heal anything – even bring back the dead at the…instant of death…"

Ilia's jaw gaped. Link had slipped off his buckskin shirt. A pair of small, round scars rested over his stomach. His chest bore a long, straight sword-scar slightly left of center – that one would have been a heart-wound.

"Y-you died?"

"A few times. I wasn't a perfect Hero. The fairies were always very good to me."

Link put his shirt back on, but Ilia continued to stare. "It must have been so hard for you…" she whispered, "What did it feel like to die?"

"The times I could feel it," Link began, "when I was getting beaten and cut down slowly… it was horrible. Part of the time, I didn't feel anything at all because it happened so fast. One moment, I'm doing something stupid with an old canon in a snowfield, the next; I'm feeling myself sucked back into my fallen flesh while fairy-light dances around me. I saw my body once – for a split-second, broken upon Hyrule Field before being taken back into it and healed-up, good as new. I won't tell you the details about the time I fell into some lava. The heart-wound… I was fighting a heavily-armored creature. It brought out a straight-sword when I'd cut its armor off. He got me quick before I came back to life and got him. I didn't feel it. Oh, don't cry! Come on; don't cry for me, Ilia. I'm okay now. I'm here and I'm just fine."

The former Hero held the weeping woman to his chest. He had not meant to make her cry, though the fact that someone was weeping _for him_ touched him. "You can stop," he said, almost panicky, "I'm in no pain. I accepted those kinds of things when I accepted the Goddesses' call."

"It was all because of me – us," Ilia said, separating from him.

"That's how it started," Link replied with a nod, "And I'd do it all again in a heartbeat if I had to."

Ilia dabbed her tears and smirked slightly. "You always were a bit of a fool, but I guess that comes with courage."

"Let's see if we can catch us some fairies."

* * *

Link crouched on a huge rock. Epona was left to graze not far away. The Hero-turned-wilderness guide was acting strangely and he was wearing the most peculiar mask.

"You look like a cucoo!" Ilia laughed.

"I bought it from Malo years ago. He found it among some abandoned supplies in Kakariko…apparently. Are you sure I haven't shown it to you before?"

Ilia shook her head, stifling another laugh.

Link pressed something on its top edge and it made a small clicking sound. Ilia could see the quick flash of glass lenses changing behind the mask's eye-holes. "It's a scope," he said.

"Like the Hylian Knights have…" Ilia began. "They're rare. Not many of them were made."

"It lets me see things far away… very effective. Here, take a look."

Without warning, Link had slipped the Hawkeye over Ilia's face. She looked through the glass lenses. Link adjusted them for her. Everything was a blur at first, then she saw rocks and trees clearly, then, a strange and tiny bit of glowing – dancing will o' the wisps.

"Look straight ahead and down – to that dark little hollow."

"Uh-huh…."

"Do you see the little lights?"

"I see them!"

"Those are fairies. That's the spring."

"Link, this is amazing!"

"The scope helps me with hunting."

"It's… why you bring back meat every time, isn't it?"

"Yep. There's supposed to be a caravan stopover bein' built somewhere in the Lost Hills, but I wouldn't count on it. It's in moblin-country and the ones in it aren't the friendly-kind. Fool-soldiers trying to set it up are probably all dead or fled – I tried to warn them. There's a small supply-store on Hena's Creek – run by a couple of families from Hyrule – they run a gristmill for flour and meal, and they do a thing with dried fish you'd have to taste to believe."

"That good, huh?"

"I said you'd have to taste it to believe it. I didn't say it was good. It'd be a good idea to have a stopover there as soon as we can. I could tell your party was seriously undersupplied when I joined up. You've all been enjoying the meat – well, until everybody got too sick to keep it down."

"What was that… shaggy purple creature you shot for us? I've never seen a cow that huge in my life. Everyone was hauling meat. How did you bring the poor thing down?"

"Buffalo. There are plains between here and the Serenity Valley that are full of 'em. Brought her down with the help of the scope – the Gerudo use lances for those things, typically. The bulbins engage them with their giant riding-boars and the bigger ones use axes with huge heads – hack the poor beasts to bits as the run and fight. I shot it in the eye – pierced the brain. It was a lucky shot."

Ilia winced. Growing up in a farming village that raised livestock as its primary keep, she was a practical woman, but she still hated the thought of any animal suffering. She knew she was to regret asking Link about his hunting techniques. He believed in being quick, clean and humane as possible when dealing with meat, but it was still something she didn't want to think too long about. She wanted to think about the bulbins' hunting techniques even less.

"Well, let's go." He yanked the Hawkeye off Ilia's head and put it back into his pouch of wonders. He gave Epona a quick whistle and they climbed aboard. They rode to the fairy spring at first briskly, then Link slowed Epona to a walk. He dismounted and signaled Ilia to do the same. He took a jar out of his pouch and gave it to her, then took another one for himself.

"Creep up on them silently," he said. "Like I said, they do not like being captured. When you have one near, put your hand out like this, in a cup…and your jar like this, and whoosh it in there. It's like catching fireflies. You have to be as gentle with them, too – fairy wings are delicate. They may be healing-creatures, but they have trouble healing themselves. This is why they're limited, actually."

"Don't they die when they've healed someone with a very bad injury?"

"Nope. They just go back to the Great Fairy, or hide somewhere to rest for a while, to re-energize. They _can_ die from expending all of their energy, but they usually are just fine – as long as they aren't re-captured right after use. If you break a wing or a leg, however, they're useless for healing anyone until they see the Great Fairy."

"I got one!"

"Quiet!"

Link passed her another jar. Together, they systematically scooped little pink fairies into jars and sealed them. Link popped them into his pouch and assured Ilia that they'd be just fine in there.

"That little blue one seems fascinated by you," Ilia commented, observing a small, blue fairy-orb that was hovering around Link. It looked like it was trying to inspect his face.

"Don't catch that one," Link said, "That one's not a healer."

"How can you tell?"

"She's a blue. Pink fairies are the medical class of fairy. Blue ones are… I'm not sure what they are. They're wild; I think – keepers of the trees and spirits or guides to lost children…something like that."

"She looks like she's in love with you."

"Go on, little one," Link said with a wave of his hand. "I don't need you now."

The blue orb bobbed sadly back toward the shadows.

"I think we've got them all," Ilia said.

"Nope," Link said. "There are a few more, and we need as many as we can get." Without warning, he drew his large hunting knife from his belt and sliced the palm of his right hand with it. Ilia yelped.

"Sssh!" Link demanded, sheathing his knife and holding his hand out toward the center of the spring as he waded into it. His blood dripped into the water. A few fairies started drifting toward him, bringing up their lights to dispel the shadows they came from. A few more rose out of the water, all of them gathering toward his wounded hand. He swiftly brought a bottle over with his left and scooped one. His right hand bled over the glass of the bottle as he held it and fumbled to find a cork. He corked the bottle and slipped it into his pouch. "Ilia, help," he whispered as he once again held his hand out to attract the fairies.

Ilia quickly scooped.

"Leave one," Link ordered. Ilia watched in wonder as the last fairy spun around Link's hand. The cut in it mended perfectly, as if sewn up, then pressed and sealed. Even the callouses that had been on the hand before he'd injured it were gone. The fairy proceeded to spin around Link's entire body and vanished as it cleared the top of his head.

He opened his eyes. "I feel great!" he said. "Nothing like recharging the blood!" Noting her questioning look, he answered; "Sometimes, the only way to draw them out is with an offering… of sorts. They respond to pain – at least the pain of a good or neutral person. These springs are holy places that repel evil… really makes me wonder why they let a blood-filthy person like me here…but as long as the Goddesses have favored me, they've had an instinct to heal me."

Ilia took his right hand in both of hers, inspecting it in the dying rays of the late afternoon sunlight. "The cut didn't even leave a scar."

"Fairies sometimes leave scars," Link informed, "On really bad wounds, usually just the fatal ones."

"The sun will set soon."

"Let's get back to camp. I'm sure everyone will be happy once they see the help we have for them."

* * *

_**The trail winds ever onward…**_


	5. A Break in the Action

**Westward!**

**Chapter 5: A Break in the Action**

As soon as Link and Ilia got back to the caravan's camp, the flurry of activity started. They went to the sick, releasing fairies on them. They subsequently shoved bottles into the hands of the newly-healthy and ordered them to see to others. The horses and oxen snorted their confusion at all the fairy-light.

"Last one," Link said as he held his last bottle – the one that was encrusted with his blood from cutting his hand. The little fairy within was acting mildly distressed. Link knew that she probably smelled the blood and did not like it. "Is there anyone left?" he asked himself as he looked around.

Rock the Goron came shambling toward him, carrying a limp body in his strong arms. It was Zane Flake, the head of the young Flake family. "Too late," Rock said forlornly. "He died."

Link cautiously touched Mr. Flake's neck. "He's still warm," he declared. "He's still warm! There's hope!"

"I think it is too late," Rock repeated.

"No," Link said, struggling to uncork the bottle he held, dried blood sealing the seam between the cork and glass. "If he's still warm, a fairy can bring him back." Link looked past Rock's right shoulder, seeing something that he knew no one else saw. This was an artifact from his time spent as an animal and his time spent beneath the clouds of Twilight. It was Flake's soul – his "light." It appeared as a little puff of flame, shifting and dancing, remaining close to the body. If Link concentrated, it would shift into a full apparition with the appearance of the body – the person's own residual image of their form, but Link did not concentrate and only saw the little flame. He knew what it was, though. There was a green tinge to its light that shifted to blue as it flickered, then back to green.

Link panicked, working the cork with ferocity. From what he knew of spirits and fairies, once a spirit had shifted into blue, it had been sundered from the body irrevocably and either moved on to the other side or became a ghost. Green was the color of ghost flames that were closer to life (green was the color of Farore, the Goddess of life, courage and all green, growing things). Blue was the color of Nayru – of wisdom, of law and of cosmic, spiritual things. The spirits that Link had seen in the Twilight of people who had not died had been green while all of the Poes (pure ghosts, born of the land's hatred, beings that had never been alive in the physical sense) were blue.

The cork popped and Link slammed the bottle over the unfortunate man's chest. He watched the fairy-light dance around the man's body and over the ghost light, pushing it back in. Mr. Flake coughed and opened his eyes. Rock smiled and held him firmly.

"I'm alive?" Flake asked.

"Yeah," Link answered.

Rock gently set the man on his feet. He staggered and leaned on the Goron. "I feel so strange," he declared.

"It'll take a few minutes to get your bearings," Link said gently. "Just take it easy. It's not like you're in the middle of a fight, you have that luxury."

"How would… you know?"

"I've died a lot," Link said to the surprised man. "It was a lucky thing for everyone that the fairy spring was near. These fairies are all spent and there's not another one until the very edge of the Stone Dagger Pass. Better hope that no one gets sick again – or hurt badly."

"Wolf…"

"Yes?"

"I was pretty sure I just saw something… a few moments ago. Myself, in Rock's arms… and you standing over me. I had the impression that you were… something else… someone more than just a wilderness guide."

Link stiffened.

"I think we saw each other and you were… there is a strange, spiritual quality about you, something like you are more than who you are, something ancient, something… blessed."

"Nah. I'm just lucky, or unlucky, depending upon perspective. Go see to your wife and kids. I'm sure they'll be happy they won't have to dig a hole for you."

"Um… thanks?"

* * *

Taking care of livestock presents a special kind of hell that only farmers know. When Ilia was able to tour Castle Town with her mind unclouded, not long after Link vanished from Ordon, she'd heard little girls chatter about how they wanted their own ponies as presents from their parents for the Winter Feast of Nayru. She'd wanted to correct them but knew it wasn't her place. She'd shared their sentiment, after all. Horses were wonderful animals and she felt very privileged to have grown up in the country – it's just that there were so many considerations to taking care of them that city people, and especially young children, would have a difficult if not impossible time of it.

Horses needed room to run and lots of food – either grass to graze on or hay and grains. If stabled, they needed to have their spaces cleaned every day (one of the world's smelliest jobs and one that generally wrecked any shoes or boots a stablehand wore). They needed lots of water to drink and if their stable-stall was ever clean after they'd spent a night in it, there was cause for great concern. Ilia knew the many ailments that plagued horses, as well – some of them natural, some of them created by human keeping and use. For strong beasts, they were also supremely fragile. Injuries to the legs were a great problem – even if a horse survived a hole in the hoof or a torn ligament, they were generally crippled for life, unable to carry a rider or load any longer. A nibble at the wrong kind of food could send their guts into colic – a common killer of horses.

Movement usually cleared up minor issues before they turned deadly in the ways of colic. The horses of the caravan were on the move all the time. Still, there were the few days that Link walked Epona back and forth at the edges of camp after camp had been struck and before the morning move-out, worrying over her. Members of the party who had little experience with horses were surprised at how much joy their horse master and their wilderness guide could express over a big bowel-movement. Epona had no more problems after that.

Rock's horse, his Goron-bred beast of burden, had no such problems. Much like the Gorons, themselves, Goron rock-drafters were creatures as hardy as stone. The huge beast subsisted on minerals, eating rocks and dirt. Rock was rather confused over the excitement of the human and Hylian members of the party over his horse's droppings. Occasionally, old Quarz dropped a few nuggets of gold or silver. Apparently, it made an alternate currency to rupees. The Goron never understood the Hylians' love of jewelry made from the same stuff that comprised manure.

The oxen presented their own dilemmas. They had to be given sufficient freedom to graze and to be free of the yokes, but had to be watched to make sure they didn't wander off. Link took lead on this, having had half his childhood comprised of herding Ordon goats, which were close to the same size and with worse tempers. Zane Flake helped him, having had his own farming experience.

"There are kinds of dogs that are good with cattle," Mr. Flake said as he and Link adjusted a yoke on a pair of animals in readiness to set out on the trail for the day. "Stocky-bodied, low to the ground. They can nip at the critters' heels and are too low to get kicked."

"Oh, I have my own experience with dogs," Link replied, grinning.

"Dindammit!" Flake cursed, "One of 'em's in the river."

Link dropped what he was doing and ran toward the river they were by. The group was moving out today because it had finally come down to a level Sam and he agreed was safe for fording. They'd been stuck for three days dealing with floods from rains further upland. An ox had wandered off and was stuck in the middle of the (now-shallow) river. It moaned and bellowed.

"Looks like his legs sank into the mud," Link groused. He grabbed a spare bridle and waded out into the waters, caramel-colored from mud and silt.

"Wolf!" Maru cried as Link suddenly sank down to his waist. He hefted himself up and waved to everyone gathered on the shore. He approached the thrashing animal and spoke to it calmly.

"Come on, come on… easy." He buckled the bridle over the ox's head and began tugging the lead rope. It was a bit different than dealing with a horse. Link backed up, trying to lead the ox to the other shore since the shore opposite the caravan was the one the beast was closest to.

Colin was wading in to help him. Link held up his hand to tell him to stay where he was. The ex-Hero looked in horror as a wall of water gushed toward him from upriver. Everyone let out a collective scream as the flash flood hit, toppling the ox and pulling their wilderness guide under.

A moment later, the ox breached the water's surface and hefted itself up onto the shore. Link was nowhere to be seen.

"Wolf!" Sam cried, "Does anyone see him?" "Wolllf!" he bellowed downriver.

Brandon jumped in, along with the Zora couple, searching the mud.

Ilia, Colin and Zane took off running downriver along the shore. They kept their eyes peeled for any sign of him.

Then they saw him, clinging to a rock with one white-knuckled hand, his face bruised, determined and grim. Zane waded in behind him. Colin scrambled over the rise in rock to reach down to grab his right arm. Ilia waded into the waters, sinking chest-deep in a hollow.

"You alright?" Colin asked.

Link answered with a scream was Ilia tried to take his left arm. She maneuvered to grab him around the torso. The three lifted Link up and helped him to shore. He sat down and winced.

"The arm… arm hurts," he complained.

Ilia gently touched his left arm. "Can you move it at all?"

Link tried, grunting and wincing. "Think it might be broken."

"Could be a sprain," Zane offered.

"Not with those rocks," Link shot back. "Ah! Ah!"

"Stop moving it, dummy!" Ilia scolded.

"Trying to find out… the extent of the damage… Don't know whether it's a clean break or just a crack. Feels pretty bad."

Most of the caravan had heard the commotion and was coming. Colin, meanwhile, took Link's belt off and rummaged through his pouches. "I can't feel any bottles in here," he said.

"We used up all the fairies," he answered. "And there are no more springs for quite a while. Unless I'm lucky enough to find a random fairy in a bush, it looks like I'm going to have to ask someone to splint me… heal naturally."

Charity Taylor was already upon him with an aid kit. Link made pained faces as she prodded and manipulated his arm. She made him hold the arm in toward his chest as she wrapped it with something stiff to stabilize it and constructed a crude sling for him. Meanwhile, Dinah the dancer rubbed his back to try to make him feel better.

"Busted up guide," Sam complained, "Just great. Too late to backtrack to them Gerudo if we want to make it to the pass before the bad weather sets in. What do we do?"

Link shot him a serious look. "We continue on. Don't worry about me, I'll be alright."

"You'll still be able to scout, but can you ride like that?" Sam asked. "I'll have you ride in the lead wagon. Someone else will see to your horse."

"I can ride Epona," Ilia said.

"But you can't fight like that…." Sam continued, "What if we run into trouble?"

"We haven't so far," one of the caravan members said, "and we have young Colin."

"I've fought in worse condition," Link assured.

"Take it easy," Sam ordered. "We almost lost you."

* * *

Link was riding next to Sam with an emptied potion bottle at his side when he called out and used his good arm to wave to figures upon a dry, grassy hill.

"Hey!" he called.

Sam halted the oxen. "What's this about?"

On the crest of the hill was a covered wagon to which was attached a pair of mighty Goron rock drafters. A man knelt before a marker at the base of the hill and a lightly-armored woman came running down toward Sam and Link. Ilia pulled up on Epona.

"Ashei!" she called, "Is that you? Do you remember me? Ilia of Ordon?"

"Ashei?" Sam asked with a scratch of his head, "You mean like the explorer?"

"Yeah, one and only," the woman said with a wink. "And yes, that man over there is the famous Shad. Doin' follow up research. He insisted on coming back out this way, yeah? Mineral samples, wildlife, that whole deal. We stopped to pay respect to the grave of one of our men lost in the first expedition. See ya got a hurt man, there. Need help?"

Link was looking down, letting his hair hide his eyes. He sucked the last precious drops of his potion bottle. He was in more pain from being jostled and bruised than from the broken bone. His arm only hurt when he moved it.

"We're all on our way to the Serenity Valley," Sam said. "Our boy here's Wolf, our wilderness guide. Almost got himself killed this morning trying to rescue an ox what got stuck in the Alig River. Brave kid, but I'd rather lose an ox than a man."

"What's all this about?" said a man who strode boldly up to the wagon. All the other wagons in Sam's party had halted and people were climbing out to see what was going on or to greet the people met along the trail.

"Shad!"

"Ilia, why we haven't seen you in eons! I trust all is well in Ordon? Telma misses you terribly."

"I am with these people headed toward a bold new life," Ilia answered, "One that you and Missus Ashei opened up for us."

Shad pointed to her mount. "That equine seems familiar to me. It looks very much like the one our legendary Hero used to ride."

Link looked up. Something passed between him, Shad and Ashei.

"L-L-La" Shad stammered.

"So the Gerudo tales are true…" Ashei gasped. "You are the Wolf of which they speak."

"Link," Shad said, "Hyrule has missed you dearly-much."

"Link?" Brandon asked, "THE Link?"

"He saved my life!" Zane Flake declared, "He brought me back from the dead! My intuition… we _have_ been being lead by the Hero!"

"Now, now, everyone calm down," Sam said. "This is precisely why he asked me to keep it a secret."

A collective cheer went up in the caravan.

"There is no way we can fail!" someone declared.

"The gods are on our side!"

Link hung his head and closed his eyes.

"What is wrong, dear boy?" Shad asked, "Ashei and I have some spare potions if you are running low or are out. You do appear to be in pain. What you went through this morning must have been quite the ordeal."

"It's not that," Link said. "I am glad to see you again, but… I shouldn't have waved."

"And why's that?" Ashei groused, putting her hands on her hips.

"I really didn't want to be anyone special."

"But you are the Hero," Shad said, "I do believe you have earned your right to honor."

"No one will take your freedom from you," Ashei proclaimed. "They'll have to answer to _me_ first."

"The Goddess' Hero is just a fancy title for exterminator," Link said, smiling sadly. "Exterminate the evil things; get the land back in order. It was like that with the last one, correct, Shad? Otherwise, I am just an ordinary person. I like contracting with the caravans, leading people to new lives and opportunity. I never wanted any of them to treat me like a god. Now…I'm worried that they will."

"Zelda will not make you a man of court unless you chose to be one," Ashei said. She smiled – an honest, warrior's smile. "I don't think she'd want you – you've gotten all rough and scruffy, yeah?"

Link laughed. "I do still shave, at least."

Without warning, Shad vaulted onto the seat of the wagon. He wedged himself in between Sam and Link, opened the book that he was carrying and produced a pen from a pocket. "I am, of course," he asserted, "going to have to ask you everything about your time and journeys in these Western lands. For the advancement of knowledge, you see - the most noble of causes."

"Shad!" Ashei scolded. "Get down from there! We've got our own wagon to hitch up and get out, yeah? You can bother him when we make camp."

"I suppose she is right," Shad sighed, hopping down. "Try to rest as much as you can on the ride, Mr. Hero, for later we have much to talk about!"

* * *

_**The trail winds ever onward…**_


	6. Assault

**Westward! **

**Chapter 6: Assault **

Link wore the Hero's Clothes again. He had been helped into them by one of the other men in the party earlier. He rode in the back of the lead-wagon, surrounded by the caravan's children. He wore the old garb to entertain them as he told them stories. Little Billy Taylor cuddled the wolf's hide he'd previously worn over his wilderness clothes.

"So, this monkey held this bombling, right? Swung back and forth and I had to aim my boomerang just right…"

"You needed help from a monkey?" little Zaney Flake Jr. asked Link incredulously.

"Why, sure, yeah," Link said, scratching the back of his neck with his good hand. It had been a bit of a pain to get his chain mail over the immobilized arm in the sling. It had hurt a little, too, with the movement required. Link was wishing they'd stumble upon a wild fairy for him. Potions were good to seal up wounds, to stop bleeding, and to soothe internal bruising. Some potions served as antidotes to poisons, but mostly, potions were just good for painkilling and stamina – something good to carry into battle, but nothing that would save your life unless taken at just the right moment. Links' left arm was well past the right moment. Healing naturally wasn't so bad, just inconvenient. He remembered the time before he became a Hero when he'd been run over by a goat in his ranch work and the beast's hoof had cracked a rib. Healing had been inconvenient then, too. Fado had lost five goats to the woods the month he was off recovering. The village never did get them back.

They'd found one half-eaten by a wolf.

"Yes, I needed his help," Link continued. "Everyone needs help sometimes, even heroes. In fact, I couldn't have done any of the things that I did without someone watching my back, or being around to sell me medicine and supplies, or just giving me words of encouragement every now and again. I would have been sunk if I didn't have good mentors to train me in the arts of swordsmanship. Ask Colin about that – his dad was one of my mentors. You see, kids, if all goes right with the world, we all save each other."

"Whoa!"

First, it was the awe of the children, then Link heard a sudden "Whoa!" as the slowly-creaking wagon jostled to a full-stop.

"Link, get out here!" Sam shouted.

Link hefted himself down out of the wagon and went to the man's side. Everyone else had stopped, equally confused. Ilia, Colin, Shad and Ashei were staring off into the distance, next to Sam, who had one eye to a spyglass.

"Think that's trouble up ahead, right on the crest of that ridge over yonder," Sam sighed.

Link did a one-handed reach into his hip-pouch and retrieved his Hawkeye. He slipped the mask onto his head. Ilia reached over and helped him secure the device. Link flipped the lenses and gazed off in the direction that Sam indicated. Upon seeing moving shapes, he flicked the lenses again, and again until he had maximum magnification.

"Trouble indeed," the swordsman grunted, noting the red flag with an abstract black cattle-skull crest upon it. It was being carried by a rider on a large boar. "That's the Midoro Bulbin Tribe. They are not friendly. They probably detected us a while ago, been trailin' us, decided now's the time to slaughter us and take our goods. Sneaky devils. They're far off enough for us to prepare, but not to make a run for it. The oxen are far too ponderous. Things are about to get very bloody."

"Wha?" Sam yelped.

Link continued to look ahead and he kept his voice calm. "We will survive if we prepare. Colin, are you confident in your skills with a bow?"

"Um… yes. Dad taught me."

"Good. Reach into my pocket. It'll feel like a little twig, but once you draw it out, you'll find a full-size bow and a quiver of fifty-arrows. I am going to need you to fight at distance, since I cannot draw a bow right now. Once they crest our hill, pick off as many as you can. Switch to your sword when they come in close-range."

"I'll get my horse! I'll ride to meet them!"

"Not the wisest thing to do alone, kiddo. Get everyone to huddle their wagons together, form a circle. All of the children and those who otherwise cannot fight should stay in the center. Riders can circle around and fight. I want every able-bodied man to grab a weapon – and any women willing to fight, as well."

Colin had taken the bow and arrows.

"I am willing to fight," Ilia said.

"Take my rupee-pouch."

Ilia unlatched Link's wallet from his belt, confused. "Are we going to bribe them?"

"Open it up and look inside," Link answered. "There is a little red and golden thing, a funny looking little widget. If you press in upon it, it will become a full-suit of armor. It will fit any body it is placed upon. The catch is that the wallet hooks onto it and the armor uses rupees. You see, it is magical armor. It will protect you from any wound. Once it's on you, you will be invincible, immortal. However, it takes a rupee every so often for wear, and larger amounts and denominations if you're hit. Luckily, the going rate is the same for a fatal wound as for a flesh wound. Don't ask me how it works, but I'm sure it's made Malo very rich. He's the one who sold it to me and I assume the rupees it uses go to one of his coffers. If the wallet runs out of money, either find some quick or press the gem on the chest to get it off of you quick. If it runs out of money for fuel, it loses its protective properties and becomes like a coat of lead. I'd call it a rip-off, but it's saved my life once or twice and I really want you to be safe."

"Link, I can fight as I am. Don't you want me to be light and swift?"

"Ilia, I need you to do something special for us – besides just seeing to the rider-less horses. If you'll reach into my pouch, you'll find something soft and feathery. Draw it out."

Ilia did so and found herself holding something strange, indeed. "It looks like a bird's wing."

"It contains the spirit of a powerful fairy. It is the Gale Boomerang and it controls wind. If the bulbins light the wagons on fire, I need you to throw the boomerang at them to put out the blazes."

Ilia was hit with a sudden memory from the time when she was without her normal memories. She, in younger days, tended to a sick Zora prince in the back of a wagon being jostled about on the plains of Hyrule. Link rode behind, frantically, periodically fighting off bulbins and tossing a strange object at the wagon that sent small cyclones of cool wind everywhere. He'd put out many small fires and one that had blossomed out of control, threatening to consume them. When they'd finally arrived in Kakariko, that brave young man she did not know at the time was covered in many bleeding wounds and bruises, and he could barely stay on his horse. Still, he'd smiled at her and made sure the Zora boy was taken care of before he rested or let anyone see to him.

"Also, Ilia, that armor? If you're wearing it while riding Epona, be aware that if it runs out of money, you will be thrown to the ground. I learned that the hard way. My wallet has enough for about two-hours, give or take heavy wounding. Make it count."

Ilia wandered off with Colin, shouting orders to everyone to get organized and to find weapons.

"Rock," Link said to the Goron who'd come up beside him, "You can fight, can't you?"

"It would be my honor."

"Do you need any weapons?"

"It is the pride of my people to fight with our bodies," Rock replied, balling up a fist and pounding his proud Goron belly.

"When they come up over that hill, I want you to roll into them. Knock their mounts out from under them. Wrestle and toss the bigger pigs if you have to."

Rock nodded.

"I am here, Link, just like old times, yeah?" Ashei assured. Link took off his Hawkeye and smiled.

"Shad, perhaps you should go to the center, keep yourself safe. Can't have Hyrule lose its foremost scholar."

"I-I-I'll fight," Shad said. "I was a part of the Resistance, too, after all, lest you forget."

"I haven't forgotten, I just know you as a research-man. Bulbins aren't difficult to figure out."

"He can fight, Link," Ashei said authoritatively, "If something he cares about is at stake, he becomes like a lion. During our first expedition, we were under attack by moblins near the Morgue Swamp. I was injured and was unable to reach my sword. A big blue moblin was bearing right down on me – suddenly, Shad sweeps in, grabs up my sword, utters the fiercest battle cry I've ever heard and cleaves the creature's head off in one clean strike."

Shad laughed nervously as Link gave him an impressed look. "Alright, then, grab a sword if you can find one."

"Should I take yours, old boy? I do not mean to be rude, but you should go to the center. You're injured. Hero or not, I fear you'll be an easy kill, trussed-up like you are."

Link gave him a hard glare as he drew his sword with his right hand. "I am going to fight."

"But… you cannot hold a shield and aren't you left-handed? Discretion is the better part of valor."

"I have fought in terrible condition and lived," Link said. "I have been the bane of many a bulbin. Like I've said, 'Hero' means 'Exterminator.' I'm not going down easy and I'm not going down now. Furthermore, I have a duty to this caravan. I am its guide and protector. I can't shirk my duties for anything."

"And if you die, yeah?" Ashei asked.

"It will be no finer death – taking care of people I care about, to die with honor."

"Understood."

"You can bury me out here, or take me back to Hyrule-proper so Queen Zelda will know what happened. Either way, it doesn't matter, 'cause I ain't dyin'. We're going to make it through this."

"They're comin'," Sam stated.

They came over the hill like a plague. The hooves of their riding-boars shook the ground. The goblin-like creatures rode two to a mount, three or four on the larger hogs and they blew loud, ivory horns. Most of them carried rude clubs, but mighty axes and spears winked in the midmorning sun. A large number of them were armed with bows and were skilled at lighting arrows to fire in succession.

Colin rode around the hasty caravan camp on the feisty little red Gerudian mare he'd picked up at the Tantari encampment. She was so small and light that she made Epona look like a Goron rock-drafter. Her hooves were nimble and swift and she snorted in a way that told Colin that she'd been bred and born to battle. She seemed more eager to it than he was. Lighted arrows sailed in, over his head and thunked in the ground around him. He drew the Hero's Bow, sighted in on a boar-rider and made his first kill.

He remembered, with some discomfort, what Link had said about the bulbins. They had minds, like people. Colin wondered if his kill had a family – young bulbin-lings whose father wouldn't be coming home. It may have even been a girl. Bulbins were one of those races where the females were indistinguishable from the males except, apparently, by their own tribe members. Gorons were like that, too. Some had asked Rock what he was and he said he was a male, but no Hylian or human could ever know for sure.

His horse spooked under him as another fire-arrow embedded itself near her feet. There was no time to ponder uncomfortable questions. Colin knocked back another arrow and fired, this time missing. Another arrow landed home in a green bulbin-throat. Yet another hit a bulbo-boar right between the eyes. It skidded in the dirt and grass, throwing its riders, which came running forward on foot, only to be ploughed into the earth by the Goron, Rock, who was curled into a ball, rolling at top Goron-speed. He'd achieved velocity enough to have magic-induced spikes protruding from his hard skin.

Meanwhile, Ilia rode an obedient Epona, decked out in the shining red and gold magic armor. She threw the Gale Boomerang frantically at the coverings of the wagons as they were hit by flaming arrows. Ashei covered her with her sword as foot-bulbins started rushing in. Men and women shouted, countering club and short-sword wielding bulbins with swords, hatchets, butchering knives, pitchforks…anything that was a weapon or could be weaponized that was on-hand. A few even picked up spears and swords dropped by fallen bulbins – anything to defend their own families and their fellow travelers.

Shad fought – perhaps a little clumsily, but with a skill quite a bit better than most of the caravan men. Colin caught a glimpse of him as he rode alongside incoming boar-riders, cutting them down with his sword. Shad had taken a wound somewhere on his head. Blood ran down and covered the left half of his face and he had lost his eyeglasses.

Oxen bellowed and horses panicked. Rock picked up boars by the tusks and jowls and tossed them hard enough into the ground to break their backs, ignoring their squeals of agony. The most amazing thing Colin saw in this battle, however, was Link. Link, with a wounded, sling-trussed arm where a shield should have been, and wielding a sword in his non-dominant hand - was cutting and stabbing down bulbins left and right. His movements almost seemed effortless, like a dance, even though a twitch here and there betrayed that he really was handicapped. The teenager saw, for a moment, his Hero's face. There was a certain satisfaction in his features when he'd dispatched an enemy, but no thrill or "joy" in the killing. He was a man doing just what he had to do to protect all that he loved – nothing more, nothing less.

Then Link was struck down with an arrow coming in from the field.

Colin spurred his horse toward the fallen man, only to be blocked by a horde of foot-soldier bulbins. He swiped at them, screaming. It was then that he saw Link get up, a broken arrow-shaft in his left shoulder. He gave Colin a sad smile.

"At least it's not my good arm," he halfheartedly joked. Both he and Colin paused for a moment to look out over the field from whence the assault had come. It was still coming.

"We're outnumbered," Colin said.

"Yep," Link replied.

"Are we about to die?" Colin asked.

"Yep, probably," Link sighed.

"Maybe it is the destiny of the brave to die young," Colin said, his grip tightening on his sword hilt while he held his reins equally tight. "I regret that I won't get to have a son to raise to be strong like you."

"You deserved a longer life," Link replied. "I am sorry."

"No need to apologize, Link. I chose to come on this journey. Despite the current situation, you were the best of guides, and don't forget that you were the Hero. You will always be that. We'll meet again in Farore's Fields, in Din's Country and by Nayru's Infinite Waters. Let's not go down without giving them a fight they'll never forget, hmm?"

Link looked up at the young man. He had a great deal of his father in him – a far cry from the timid little child he'd once known. Link had always seen potential in the boy, even then, but now – in this moment, Colin's courage had come to full-flower. There remained a deep sensitivity about him, but it was not a weakness. No, it had become a poetry of the soul. The poor kid really did deserve to live longer.

"Of all the times to be without fairies," Link sighed before turning his gaze back upon the oncoming enemy – their on-rushing doom.

Just then, another horn-blast sounded over the hill. Another group of bulbins swept in, firing arrows and leveling spears at the first group. At their head was an enormous white boar, the size of a small elephant. Riding that boar was a huge bulbin wearing a helmet of horns. He wielded a great axe, with which he swept aside the boars and riders of the enemy.

"Well, Farore bless me…" Link gasped. Then he started laughing.

Colin simply stared, disbelieving the sight before him. What's more is that he recognized this character with painful clarity.

"Ol' King!" Link exclaimed. His spirit renewed, he ran forth, despite the blood running down his chest, to dispatch the remaining foot-bulbins that were trying to raid the wagons.

All was the blaring of horns the grunts of bulbins – both the dying ones and those victorious, the squeals of dying boars and the screams of wounded horses. The enemy was routed and there were only a few survivors left of them to scatter. King Bulbin and his warriors rode down into the camp. Link jumped out ahead of them, raising and waving his sword. He shouted at the members of the caravan to lower their weapons, that this tribe was on their side.

"Hero," King Bulbin grunted. "Weak, filthy dog. Wounded. Should make you a dead dog. One stroke of my axe should do it."

"Oh, King," Link laughed. "Smelly old maggot-breath. I'd still whoop you, one hand tied."

King Bulbin laughed heartily. "You've still got the balls of a giant boar. Your people may go in peace."

Shad came walking up, only to have King Bulbin's axe sweep in front of him, inches from his nose. His expression was wide-eyed. He stood shock-still. The big ogre guffawed and took his weapon back. "Kept your piss in your body," he said. "The Hero would keep strong company."

Then the King saw Colin glaring at him. He smiled a greasy smile and nodded to Link. "Face is familiar," he said. "My flag."

"Yes," Link answered. "This is the boy I rescued from you – grown up."

"Was going to make his entrails my necklace if you had not come for him," King Bulbin grunted. "Would have taken his scalp to decorate my saddle. Still looks scrawny."

Colin growled, his grip tightening on the hilt of his sword.

"Easy, Colin," Link advised.

"Fights well," the King said. The bulbin tribal leader steered Lord Bulbo, his great porcine steed, to the edge of the camp.

"You should smile, Colin," Link said. "He complimented you. He's not easy with compliments. Don't worry about the other stuff he said. It is his way to greet people with insults. It's a show of intimidation. Uf!"

Link fell on his rear end. Colin dismounted and went to his side. Shad knelt beside him. Ashei came, as well. Ilia came jogging up, releasing the latch on the magic armor and slipping the miniature of it into the rupee-pouch on her belt, still half-full. They grabbed Link and propped him up against the wheel of one wagon, placing a folded blanket behind his back for support.

Ashei dabbed at Shad's forehead with a damp cloth, trying to clean and soothe the gash in his scalp as he, in turn, examined Link's arrow-wound. It was only now that the Hero was feeling it keenly. The calm after the battle allowed his adrenaline to settle.

"It's the gods' own fortune that it hit where it did," Shad declared. "A few inches down and it would have got a lung. As it is, this needs to come out. If that arrowhead works its way any deeper into you, it could cut a major blood vessel. You'll exsanguiate in minutes."

"Bite down," Ashei ordered, stuffing a folded leather belt into Link's mouth. She unceremoniously ripped the arrow shaft out of him. Ilia was quick to press a clean cloth to the wound.

"How about the others?" Link asked.

"Everyone's seeing to everyone else," Ilia assured.

"Hey, what are they doing?" Colin asked, pointing to the members of King Bulbin's tribe, who were gathering the dead bulbins from the enemy tribe and loading them onto their boars. "Are they going to bury them in their own lands?"

"No," Link gasped as Ilia wiped his sweaty forehead and face. "They're taking them back to their camp for food."

Everyone gasped. They stared at Link, then at the King's tribe.

"They… they don't think like us," Link explained. "They don't make distinctions in what meat they eat and they don't see any reason for meat to go to waste. It's sort of an honor, I guess."

"So, if your 'friends' hadn't shown up," Colin began, "the first group would have eaten our slain corpses, too?"

"Yes. Don't try to stop them from gathering their own, or you will be on the menu."

The boy shuddered.

"Shad, here…" Ashei said as she wound a bandage around her husband's head.

Wounded people could be heard groaning. Children cried, but by their shouts, Link could tell that each and every child in the party was alive and well. Ilia parted away his chain mail and tunic to wind a tight bandage around his shoulder, careful of his already-injured arm. "Thank you," he said. "You're very tender."

At this, Ilia blushed. She yelped when Link stood up. "Link! Sit back down!"

"I will when I make sure everyone's alright, okay?" he said, making his way across the camp. King Bulbin and his tribe left as he picked his way around the torn earth. Ilia had done an excellent job of fire-fighting and none of the wagons had significant damage. There were a few scorch-marks in the cloth of the coverings on the largest wagons, but they could be repaired easily. None of the important goods had been taken. Everyone's injuries were minor. It would seem that he and Shad had gotten the worst of it.

Then he realized that one member of the party was missing. He jogged to the edge of the camp, ignoring the pain his fresh wound was giving him. He saw someone on the ground. When he got to the body, he knelt down before it.

Brandon lay still with a doused bulbin arrow in his chest. It was a clean shot. Sam, Colin and Ilia came up behind him, followed by many other party members.

"Oh, no!" one of the women gasped.

After examining the wound, Link looked off to the side. "I'm sorry," he said. "There are no fairies near. Besides, it would be too late, anyway - you've shifted into blue."

"Who is he talking to?" Mr. Taylor asked.

Zane Flake smiled. "I think he's talking to Brandon's spirit. I know he saw mine when I was…"

Sam scratched his head.

"You… you should move on now," Link said, still talking to what everyone else saw as empty air, "If you linger too long here, you may become a Poe or something just as bad – and that's not good for anyone. I will tell her – when I make my way back to the Gerudo camp, I will tell her and that the father of her child is sorry he couldn't see his son or daughter. Don't worry about it. They've been raising their sons as proud tribe-members, too, despite them being human and Hylian. Yes, Brandon, I'll tell her you loved her."

"Wow, he's having a full-out conversation," said Sherri.

"Looks a bit crazy," Sam muttered.

Mr. Flake shot him a glare. "I would have thought the same if I hadn't experienced what I've experienced, but this is the Hero. It makes sense that he would have strange powers."

"We'll give you all the proper rites," Link continued. "And we're all very sad. Please go on in peace. Don't make us sadder."

Sam shrugged. "It's not like we have a priest on this journey."

Link looked back to the body and placed the tips of his fingers onto the bloody chest. He closed his eyes and began reciting something. Colin immediately knew what it was and knelt beside him, following suit. Shad knelt and recited the Rites of Farore, as well.

"Someone get the shovels," Link said, standing up. "He wants to be on the hill." He swayed and Ilia caught him. She led him to one of the wagons so he could rest. He couldn't dig anything himself in his condition. As he walked, he hung his head. Only Ilia caught his whisper; "Someone I couldn't save," he lamented.

Shad looked at Colin. "How did you know the recitation for helping a soul's transition?"

"I had it said over me, long ago. Didn't actually die, obviously. How did you know it?"

"My education. I've never had call to use it before – like that."

"I'll help Ilia gather the stray horses. You've been hurt. You should go rest – hang out with Link for a while.

Shad looked out over the caravan. "It's going to be a bit before we get back on the road again."

Sam walked behind them, shaking his head. "Nearly very one of these journeys has at least one casualty. I was hoping we'd have a clean-run, one where everybody lives. Poor kid."

* * *

_**The trail winds ever onward…**_


	7. There's No Party Like It

**Westward!**

**Chapter 7: There's No Party Like It… **

Link flexed his arm, holding it supine and then turned the wrist and elbow back again. He was wearing loose clothing, gray-white night clothes and sitting with pillows behind his back within the glow of his lantern in the back of one of the wagons on the edge of the camp, a warm blanket over his outstretched legs. He was trying to ignore the sounds – mostly creaking – from the other wagon at the far edge of the camp.

Colin walked over to the wagon and hopped up into it, sitting down next to Link. "Got some stretch back into it?" he asked.

"Yeah," Link answered. "It's pretty well healed. It could stand to loosen a little bit more. I need to keep exercising it. My strength's back, though. It doesn't hurt to pick anything up anymore at all."

"It healed quick – for a break."

"What can I say? Potions work wonders."

Colin winced at an especially loud wooden groan coming from the other wagon as its bed jerked against its wheels. That wagon was a rather little wagon and relatively light in construction.

"What are Shad and Ashei doing in there?"

"Making love," Link answered. "They're lucky to get the privacy. Most of our couples would envy their position."

"If Malo were here, he'd suggest they make some rupees turning their little wagon-at-the-far-end-of-camp into a love hotel."

Link laughed, his breath a light steam in the crisp air. Autumn had come to the western lands. It painted the grasses in gold and all the trees in shades of fire. Unfortunately, it meant that time had run out for getting through the Stone Dagger Pass, at least according to Link. The group was camped in the foothills of the mountains. Sam wished to proceed, fearing for their supplies and the sanity of the caravan members, all very weary of long travel. Link insisted that the pass was too dangerous right now, that they had missed their "window" and that it was best to make camp here for the duration of the winter. He knew how to make what they had serviceable for housing against the winter cold – which would be relatively light here.

Link said that he expected only a few light snows down on the plain, while the Pass would be choked with impassible ice and constant blizzards. He said that they could stretch their supplies and supplement them with the ripening fall fruits and game. If the vote was cast, they could even go back to their last outpost, a little Hylian military fort they'd left not long ago and restocked their medical supplies at.

Sam did not want to do that. He was uncomfortable with the wait and did not want to risk running out of food – no matter how good Link and some of the other party members were at hunting. He worried that they'd be prey for bulbins again, or even moblins, which roamed this area. In either case, the matter was to be decided in the morning.

"Are you worried about tomorrow?" Colin asked.

"A little," Link answered. "I think everyone will see some sense. All they have to do is look up and see the snows down the mountains."

"Everyone is pretty antsy. They want to claim their lands. They want to have decent lodgings in the budding town out there in the Valley. They just want the trip to be over. I… I think it's rather a grand adventure, but most folks just want a place to settle."

"Hmm."

"You seem… beyond antsy, Link. Are you hiding something? You're a little pale. Are you afraid of something?"

Link sighed heavily. "To be honest, yes."

"There aren't monsters in those mountains, are there?"

"If there were, you know I could handle them. No, no monsters, but there might be ghosts."

"Ghosts? What do you mean?"

"As Wolf, I've not been a perfect guide, Colin. I ran into a situation just like this a few years back. I was with the Rising-Dawn party. That wasn't a clever name; it was lead by a woman named Martina Rising and a man named Silvio Dawn. A large party, ten members stronger than this one. They insisted upon taking the pass in late Autumn, despite my warnings. Ice, snow, wagon wheels breaking, horses and oxen skidding and breaking legs, frigid, bitter cold – it was brutal. The blizzard conditions threatened to bury us all. Food ran low quickly – what with people eating extra to keep up the calories they were burning off.

I headed off the path to hunt when the avalanche happened. It wasn't large and it didn't sweep the entire party away, but it did cut me off from them. I tried everything to pass it. Epona nearly froze to death. Trapped where I was, I thought of eating her more than once."

Colin gasped. Link loved his horse more than almost anything.

"I… managed to survive by doing… interesting things. Nothing immoral, just nothing I can tell you about. I followed the ways of the wild, you might say, 'lived more animal than man.' I could see all of Epona's ribs by the time a path thawed enough so we could get through. She managed to find a little green vegetation. She's… the toughest horse I've ever seen. By all logic, she really should be dead right now. When I searched for the Rising-Dawn party what I found….what I found…"

"Link, easy. Easy. What did you find?"

"Well, first, there was the field of bones – half-frozen in bloody ice. Remains of oxen, of horses, haphazardly butchered by some of the marks I saw on the leg bones. Wagons, lodged up, frozen into their wheel-trenches."

"That doesn't sound so bad. I imagine many would have to eat their animals in an emergency."

"It's not that." Link shot Colin a glare as serious as a heart-attack. "It was when I… saw… I came closer to the main group of wrecked wagons. Saw Missus Smitty's arm hangin' out one the back of one of 'em, all half-frozen and purple without Missus Smitty attached to it. Could tell it was her's by this bracelet she always wore. Saw Mr. Rising, Lady Dawn and a few of the other party members huddled around a pathetic campfire, fingers purple and black from frostbite. They were taking turns with a knife stripping little bits of meat off a half-cooked hunk of meat, looked like a boiled heart."

"They didn't!"

"They did, by their own confession. Of the party, aside from me, only five lived. Some were killed by the avalanche. Some caught sick – easy to do when the cold suppresses the immune system. Some died by accidents. Whittled down to ten, the food supplies ran out. They began to starve. They continued to starve after they'd eaten the animals. As people dropped, survival instincts took over and the survivors treated the dead as 'gifts' to aid their survival. Old Silvio never lost faith that I would come back for them, but bemoaned my lateness. I was unable to save them… unable to save them from…from…that."

"Did they become monsters?"

"No. The remaining five were just men – and women. Just people, and so remained. They didn't… take any pleasure from their meals, is what I am saying. In fact, I doubt they will be able to take pleasure in a normal meal ever again. When we came out of the pass… I didn't lead them to Serenity. I lead them beyond. They didn't think they could live in the Valley with other settlers around them with what they'd done. They feared the story getting out. People would surely treat them as monsters, even though they just did what they had to do. Silvio, Martina and I went back to the Pass in summer to try to honorably bury what remained of the dead. I am only telling you this story because you are someone I trust. You are not to tell anyone."

"Not even Ilia?"

"Not even Ilia. Maybe I will tell it to her someday. It's just that I worry about the safety and good names of the five survivors… if their tale is known."

"Understandable."

"I… am filled with regret."

"You couldn't have done anything. There were circumstances beyond your control."

"Even so, I'm determined not to let it happen again. This is why I've been in screaming matches with Sam over this. Stubborn mule."

"I'm sure Shad and Ashei can back you up about the dangers of the Pass. They've been through it."

"Yeah."

"I brought something to show you."

Colin drew a small, leather-bound book from the satchel he carried. He opened it up to show pages of drawings done in thick graphite pencil. He flipped through it casually. Link looked at the scenes of fields, mountains, a stream, various animals and plants and portraits of various people in the caravan. The boy turned to a picture of Epona's face, drawn close in to show her eye. Then he turned to one of Link, shaggy-haired without his Hero's hat.

"That's what I wanted to show you," he said. "I was wondering if you liked your portrait. I didn't say anything - that's you when you were distracted, watching Dinah dance the last time she preformed for us."

Link was smiling. "You even got part of the sling there… heh! I would never have stayed so still if I knew I was being watched. You used to like drawing as a little kid but you've gotten… good!"

"I wanted to keep a visual journal of the journey," Colin said. "I figured this kind of portrait was more 'you' than with the Hero's Clothes and all. You only seem to like wearing them for the kids… and in battle."

"Because that time of my life has passed," Link said simply. "In Hyrule, a Hero is only needed for a time, to a specific purpose. I fulfilled that… and had my body scarred and my heart broken. The Master Sword is back in its resting place, awaiting another time when the evils in the land become too much for it to bear. It just doesn't seem right for me to wear the Goddesses-gifted Clothes anymore – since I'm not wielding that sacred sword."

"You're still a Hero, Link."

"Sometimes I don't know."

Colin turned to a page that depicted a young Gerudo woman.

"Neeru?" Link inquired.

"Yeah."

"Do you like her?"

"She was making goo-eyes at me the whole time we were in Tantari. She was really friendly to me, and yes, I really got to like her a lot. I didn't… do anything with her though."

"Lemme guess, her father wouldn't let you."

"LINK!"

"Gerudo have… their seasons and such. They really aren't like us. They're starting to raise Hylian-born sons within their culture, but they haven't traditionally been friendly to men except the Gerudo-kings born to them. Their genes are very strange. They need men, but don't necessarily want men. They'll like you for a time, but generally want any man they take gone after they've … utilized him… I guess is a good word for it. If you decide to go with her, you need to be aware of that. Some Gerudo have longstanding husbands – they'll do that if they think a particular person is worthy to father all of their daughters. Even so, they don't want them around all the time, don't want to keep house. Men with Gerudo wives like that tend to be travelers. They stop in every half-year or so, stay with their lady for a few weeks, then are off to their business and out of the way."

"I could do that," Colin replied. "I set out on this journey just because I wanted to see the new lands. Ilia wants to start a homestead and ranch for herself, but I just really wanted to see everything that was being reported about. I didn't really know what I'd do once we reached our destination and I still don't. I think I'd like being a traveling guide, like you. This journey and you… have already taught me some of what I need to know. Maybe you can train me further?"

"I think you already know all you need to."

* * *

"You ain't going up them mountains."

"Link, I have to. I am not going to abandon my post. I didn't think you would."

Colin gave Link a disappointed look as he turned his horse to follow the wagons.

"Don't you remember what I told you?"

"Even if I die… I'm going. You taught me that kind of courage."

After the young man trotted off to meet the rest of the party, Link turned back to Shad and Ashei. They were in their wagon behind him.

"You aren't going?" Ashei asked.

"You know what the pass is like," Link answered. "Those fools."

"This seems out of character for you," Shad commented.

"Take care of my horse," Link answered. "I am going, but I'm not going to take the same route."

"What?" Ashei yelped, her eyes going wide.

"Don't follow. You'll only get trapped up in there, like they will be. Hyrule needs your research."

"You're going without your horse?" Shad asked.

"Yep. I don't want her to die. If I die, at least she'll live."

"But you will die if you go up there alone, you idiot!" Ashei yelled.

"I'm a Hero, right? I can handle it. I… I know the kinds of trails through that pass that only the wolves know."

With that, Link brought a small object out of his belt-pouch. It enlarged into a large, circular object, which he boarded. In a flash, he was off, the object spinning beneath his feet.

"Just what in Din's Knickers was that?" Ashei asked.

"May the wisdom of Nayru guide him, and them all," Shad said, his head bowed.

* * *

_**The trail winds ever onward…**_


	8. Songdog

**Westward! **

**Chapter 8: Songdog**

Frigid. Aching into your bones, freezing you to your soul bitter. This is what the members of Sam's caravan felt in the mountains. The Stone Dagger Pass was choked with ice and snow in thick blankets. There was ice, then snow, frozen over the top with ice, and now more snow was falling in a blizzard.

They'd come upon an eerie sight; broken wagons frozen to the ground, abandoned by some earlier party. Daggers of ice dripped down from their beds and off the tops of their wheels.

There used to be some graves visible, marked with simple wooden markers. They were buried under a desert of white now.

Against Link's wishes, Colin had told Ilia what had happened to him. He was sure this must be the site of the ill-fated Rising-Dawn party's camp. He was sure he heard the howls of distressed spirits on the wind as he huddled with Ilia beneath a blanket, a blob among many waiting out the storm. Conditions had been terrible for days. The party had already lost two to hypothermia – Kau and Maru, the Zora couple. They could not be buried, so their bodies had been placed in haphazard coffins built from one of the supply wagons. The party was using the rest of the wagon for firewood.

They would have used one of the abandoned wagons, but the supplies were low enough to consolidate goods (they still had food, just not much of it) and the abandoned wagons were frozen over too hard to make dismantling them possible. Also, everyone felt too eerie about it, as if it would be like desecrating a tomb.

Rock, the Goron and his horse were likewise in bad shape. The man obsessively covered and bandaged any small scratch on his skin and on the skin of his animal. If water seeped into even the smallest wound and froze, the resulting fractures to the stone-like parts of their bodies would be disastrous.

"W-we're going to die out here, aren't we?" Ilia chattered.

"There's hope," said Colin. "I think the blizzard might be letting up. Just stay close."

"L-Link," Ilia whispered.

"Hmm?"

"I'd… I'd rather be huddled up close to Link. You're… kind of like a little brother, but he… There, I said it – even though the jerk abandoned us."

"If he didn't, he'd probably die, too. He warned us."

"Do you suppose he's going to come for us? It doesn't seem right for him to… up and leave knowing we were headed into danger."

"I don't know, Ilia. He was pretty… shaken. Maybe he thought it best not to watch us die – or resort to what the one party resorted to, but no, I think he had something in mind. He could be summoning a rescue party of some sort for us, even now."

"With this weather, he could have died along the way," Ilia groused. "One can't expect a Hero to ride in and save the day every time. He's mortal, too."

Something appeared over a snow bank between the shadows of fir trees. Howling echoed in the air.

"Wolfos!" Ilia exclaimed, on the alert. The party's surviving horses whinnied in fright.

The something among the snows became closer – a pale gray shadow in the haze of falling white. Pointed ears were visible among a shaggy coat. Colin and Ilia could make out what it was.

"It's a wolf!" Colin said. "It's not an ice-wolfos, it's a normal wolf."

"This is still bad," Ilia said. "Should get your sword."

"No… he looks familiar…somehow."

The wolf let out a gruff sound, not quite a bark, not quite a growl. He jerked his head sharply in what might be a "follow me" motion in a human. Colin and Ilia were left puzzled, but stayed wrapped and huddled where they were. Men were going to their wagons to fetch weapons.

"He looks like the guardian spirit wolf I used to see in Kakariko, when we were younger," Colin continued. "Do you remember, Ilia? There was that wolf that ran through the village sometimes, back during the Twilight War. Talo thought it was an evil monster, but it never hurt anyone and would just run around, sniffing for stuff in the shadows, then it would vanish."

Ilia sat up sharply and stared. "It's Link," she said.

"Huh?"

"The eyes. Look at that wolf's eyes, Colin. I don't know how to explain it. I thought they were just stories to mess with the heads of children… I'd know those eyes anywhere."

"You might be delirious from the cold."

The wolf barked again. Colin did, indeed, notice the beast's eyes.

"Whoever it is, it wants us to follow it."

"I'm going," Ilia proclaimed, standing up and letting Colin have the blanket. "I'm getting my horse and following. You and Sam and the rest can follow me if you want or stay behind, but I am following that wolf."

It was then that Colin sprang up and ran through the small encampment shouting "Hey! Everyone!"

* * *

The party, all half-frozen and hopeless, was willing to trust anything at that point. Goddesses, light sprits, or the ghost of the Hero of Time himself could have shown up and they would have followed them or him without question.

The wagons rolled through a wide passage that wasn't covered too deeply, or iced too precariously, following the trail of a lone dark-furred wolf. They followed the beast until the snows ceased and until they were down the slope of the other side of the mountains, rained upon by leaves falling from brown, red and golden trees. The wolf had led the party from winter back into autumn and down safely to the other side of the Stone Dagger Pass.

Then it ran off and disappeared.

Sam was getting his bearings and helping caravan members get theirs and to treat frostbite and other small injuries when Link came strolling out of the woods, clad in his full Hero's regalia, twirling his sword in one hand.

Before Sam could pick his jaw up and ask the younger man where he had been and how he had gotten there, Ilia tackled him in a hug.

"Ilia… hey, it's alright!" Link laughed.

"Thank you…you…you jerk!" was all she managed to say.

"Shad and Ashei are taking care of Epona for me," he said, answering an anticipated question before it was asked. "I'll send for her when the seasons are better suited to travel."

"By Ganondorf's beard!" Sam exclaimed, "You WALKED through the Pass?"

Ilia knowingly shook her head. It was apparent that the trail boss had not realized what she had realized.

"I don't think you'd believe my story if I told you. Let's just say I have my ways. I am a very good wilderness traveler, after all."

"Indeed. Survive through that, come out the other side walkin' ta meet us when we barely came out wagons and all. You're a mysterious man, Link."

Mr. Flake greeted him. "I am afraid that our fortunate meeting is sullied by a bit of sorrow."

"Hmm?" Link asked.

"Two of our members died," Sam said matter-of-factly. "I suppose we're at ground soft enough to bury them now. I don't know that they have any family to inform. We managed to slapdash a couple of coffins for 'em, put 'em in one of the empty supply wagons. Died of hypothermia… got sleepy no matter how much we all tried to keep them awake and next we know, they were frozen up stiff as boards."

"Who died?" Link asked.

"Kau and Maru - the Zora pair. At least they went together, husband and wife, not separated."

"May I see them?" Link asked.

"Why would you want to?" Sam asked.

"I think it is too late to speak to their spirits," Flake sighed.

"Just let me see them, okay?"

Sam shrugged and pointed to one of the smaller wagons. Everyone was aghast as they watched Link hop up in it and quickly drag out both caskets to the ground and take the lid off one.

"What is he doing?" Mrs. Taylor gasped.

Link ran his hands over the ice that enrobed Maru – the Zora female. He stroked her face, ran his hand along her shoulder and rubbed at one of her hands, half-frozen in clear ice. He then drew a lantern from his belt pouch, lit it with a match and tossed flaming oil over the unfortunate woman.

Two of the party men grabbed him. "Just what are you doing? Why are you desecrating a body like this?"

"Let me go!" Link demanded. He held up his right hand, covered in slime. "She's not dead! Her skin is sliming, it means she's not dead!"

"What are you talking about?" Dinah demanded.

"Don't any of you know anything about Zoras?" Link groused. There were many shaking heads.

"A little," Colin volunteered. "I helped take care of King Ralis back in Kakariko during the time of the Twilight."

"It's okay, Colin," Link sighed, "You wouldn't know, would you? You and Ilia didn't take care of the prince for hypothermia – he was dehydrated. Two entirely different things. I suppose none of you have had much contact with Zoras. Let me explain. Do any of you remember the story of what happened to the Zora's Domain during the Twilight War?"

"Why, yes," Mr. Taylor answered, "The Queen was executed by the beasts and the Domain froze up."

"I was there," Link sighed, "Not when the Queen was killed, I was too late to prevent that, but when the whole area was frozen. The Zora people were all frozen up inside their own waters. Solid…"

"… Like our dear Zora couple!" Mr. Flake exclaimed.

"Exactly," Link replied. "Zoras have… a compound in their blood that allows them to freeze solid for a certain amount of time. It puts them in a state of suspended animation. It's deathlike, but not death. Deep inside, the heart and the brain remain soft and viable. Zoras are vulnerable to cold, but have this survival mechanism. When their environment gets too cold for them, they start going into a hibernative state. They sleep so freezing will be painless. If they aren't frozen for too long, they can be brought back. So, I want everyone to help me! Lay these coffins out in the sun, get some fires gong to warm them! When they start to come around, I want someone to get the big pot so we can warm up enough hot water to give them both a good swabbing-down!"

Link went back to rubbing Maru's liberated hand and to casting fire in the air over her with his lantern. "We need to bring them up slowly," he continued. "Too quick will be very painful for them."

The ice dripped and fell in sheets off parts of the Zora-woman's body. Colin helped Ilia pour heated water over her husband, Kau. Maru blinked her eyes open to find Link stroking her cheek and her head-fins. "Easy," he said.

"What? What happened?" she asked. "We were in the Pass… cold… Kau? Kau?"

"Here," the male Zora gasped when he heard her voice. "Next to you, I think."

"You froze up," Link explained, "both of you. You had a natural reaction to the extreme cold. It saved your lives."

"What is this?" Maru asked, her free hand finding the wooden edges of her casket.

"We thought you were dead," Ilia answered. "We're sorry. We didn't know you could freeze up like you did."

"We would have buried you if the Hero hadn't come along and started thawing you out," said Colin.

Maru looked up at Link and smiled beatifically as he rubbed life back into her thawing legs. "Thank you," she said weakly.

* * *

The deadfall-fueled campfire popped and cracked that night. Everyone had shared a meager meal and people cuddled into blankets for warmth. Link and Ilia were wrapped in one together. The two of them were apart from everyone else.

"I know you were the wolf that guided us," she whispered. "You and it had the same eyes, but I don't know how that can be. Does the Goddesses' Chosen Hero also become a guardian spirit of some fashion?"

"I don't know if I can explain it," Link answered. "It all began during the Twilight Crisis – when I took up the Hero's call. It's sort of a dark power. I use a dark power."

"A dark power?" Ilia gasped.

"It's okay. I seem to be able to control it. At first, it could only be cleaved from me by the light of the Master Sword and then, I realized, I had that kind of light within me – the things for which the Master Sword chose me to be its master. The thing that turns me into a wolf is a crystallized shadow that I keep carefully wrapped in a secret place among my storage. If I uncover and touch it, it becomes a part of me and turns me into a wolf. I can will it out of me using all the power of my inner 'light' when I want to be in my original form again. I rarely use it, but there are times when I find it useful. I've been told that I become a wolf instead of something else because it reflects aspects of my soul – my wilder inner being or something like that."

Ilia cuddled closer to him, shivering into him. "Does the wolf part of you ever… take over?"

"In some ways yes, but never completely. I always have enough of a human mind to realize who I am. My world is opened up to a world of senses that I don't have normally. Everything smells different. Humans smell scents all blended together. A wolf's nose picks out a multitude of individual scents, layered over the top of one another and all kinds of scents, too. Did you know that snow had a smell? I didn't, either. Even Poes have a reek to them – sharp, dusty and sour, like dry bones. Manure actually smells…good… to a canine. I won't tell you what living human skin smells like to a wolf, but I will tell you that I could smell the living blood beneath it. I also get certain urges as a wolf. I crave raw meat. I feel urges to hunt and to roll in things. I don't mind putting my tongue to certain parts of my body…"

"Enough!"

"Alright, alright," Link laughed. "All I can tell you is that it's weird being another species. I'm always myself, though, the same inner soul."

"That's good to know. A wolf that will never hurt any of us. A good wolf."

"The wild ones are not bad – I'm talking about normal wolves, not wolfos. They mostly just want to be free, left alone to hunt and to raise their pups away from humans. The ones that take to picking off livestock usually only do so because they're in dire need because someone's edged them out of their territory or they've found out that livestock are easy pickings. If you had a litter of pups to feed, what would you rather do? Risk yourself against a wild boar or pick off an inattentive Ordon goat?"

"I understand."

"A lot of people who settle out here have problems with the wildlife like that. Most don't know how to manage their animals."

"You were always a good rancher."

Sam walked up to the pair. He smiled playfully. "A couple of lovebirds, eh?"

"Sam!" Ilia shot, her face red.

"We just wanted to keep warm," Link offered. "Join us. We'll have a blanket-party."

"Link!" Ilia yelped. Both he and Sam laughed.

"I just had a question on my mind," Sam said, "About how you got down the mountain without us. I suppose you used a different route, but why didn't you come for us?"

"You fired me right before you left, remember?" Link replied, "We fought and you said I could go do unholy stuff with a winged-blue bear and then you headed off."

"Yeah, about that," Sam said nervously, "You're re-hired, obviously, but… with you being a big damn Hero and all, why didn't you come with us? It seems you were expecting us to make it. You met us with perfect timing. We were trapped up there, though, lost the path."

"Then how did you get down the mountain?"

"It was the darndest thing, really," Sam confessed. "We followed this wolf. It acted like it was smart – had human smarts - and led us the whole way. Maybe we'd all gone crazy."

Link put the blanket over Ilia's shoulders and stood up. He looked up to the mountains against the clear night sky. He raised his head and let loose a perfect wolf's howl.

The howl was answered by the chorus of a wild pack.

Everyone in the caravan snapped to attention.

Link smiled a gentle smile.

"That wolf was… working for you? It was one of yours?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes."

"Amazin'."

Another howl sounded in the air, smaller and with a higher pitch.

"What was that, now?" Sam asked.

"By the sound of it," Link answered, "I'd say that one was a coyote."

* * *

_**The trail winds ever onward… **_


	9. Since I've Found Serenity

**Westward! **

**Chapter 9: Since I've Found Serenity**

The scene could not have been more perfect – like a divine ordinance. When the lead wagon crested the rise, the air damp after a short spate of rain, the gray clouds rode the sky like heaven-bound ships. Sunlight pierced one to land upon the Valley, painting its already golden autumn grasses in a sheen of brighter gold. The mountains beyond it were blue in the distance.

The caravan had been through many hardships – injuries, sickness that almost took them all, a fierce battle, poor weather, the edge of starvation, the loss of oxen, horses, and the loss of one unfortunate young man. Now, they were here. They had reached the Promised Land.

Down into the Serenity Valley the wagons rolled, their occupants scarcely believing they had actually made it. Link rode next to Ilia, ahead of the lead wagon on a sturdy Hylian mustang named Rhiannon. He had an easy grace about him, the kind gained from having been here and done this many times before.

Link saw fit to lead them toward the outpost town of Random. It was in this place that people could supply and get something decent to eat, and find a decent place to rest for a few days before everyone separated, each family or couple's wagon going its own way. There were many who wished to procure lumber right away to start building simple houses somewhere on the vast Valley floor.

"You can stake out any land for yourself around here," he said with a smile, turning to Ilia. "Anything you can reasonably defend. Winter will set in soon, though, which is not good for building, but strangely enough, good for judging a property. Any land that's good in the winter will be good year-round."

Ilia's gelding plodded along at a steady pace beneath her. "And where will you go?"

"I think I'll winter with the Lins again," Link replied.

"The Lins?"

"The Lin Ranch. Some of the first settlers I lead here. Taylin and Maylin. They raise horses and milk-cattle. I've spent some of my winters camping alone, finding a cozy cave somewhere or… as a wolf. It's too late for me to winter with the Gerudo. I've spent a couple of winters with the Lins. They like me. I help them out in exchange for the stay. It might be a good place for you to winter, too – you'll get to see how a Serenity Valley ranch works before making preparations to start your own."

"I think I'd like that… if they'll have me."

"Oh, they're real warm-hearted folks."

"Will you leave in the spring?"

"I usually do. I do have to see the Tantari Tribe as soon as I can. I need to inform Brandon's lover of what happened to him."

"His spirit has moved on, hasn't it?"

"Yes. He wouldn't know if I reneged on my promise, but I'd know. I have to keep my promise."

"I wonder just where everyone will go," Ilia mused. "It's so vast and we were… kind of like a family for a while. Dysfunctional at times and very quirky, but a family."

"There are people here from when the land was first purchased," Link said, "Lots of people I've led here, lots of people led by other guides, and some lucky fools who came on their own. There are even people from Labrynna here – from the other boarder. There is still room, though, lots of room to spread out. Who knows? Some of the more adventurous folk in our party might turn back the way we came and go for the rougher plains. This valley is very fertile, though… the easiest place to make a new life."

"Some folks may take up the hunting and gathering life, like the Gerudo… or like you, but that's not for me. I want horses. Lots of horses. I want to breed the best horses in all of Hyrule. I'll need help, though. The Taylors and the Flakes already want to homestead together, make a big farm, but they want to raise corn and vegetables, a few cattle… Sherry and Terri could probably use the work, but I bet it'd be mighty strange living as a single woman bunking with a happy couple. Probably better than with Shad and Ashei, though, if they ever came to settle – I know those two would treat me like their kid." At this, she stuck out her tongue. Link laughed.

Ilia continued. "Sam's a caravan-man. He's going to head off as soon as he can to get more work as a trail boss. Colin wants to go off and be an explorer – take up a job like yours."

"I imagine he'll ride with me when I go back to the Tantari Tribe. He's… a bit lovesick for a girl there."

"I hope you warned him about that."

"I did. He's been bugging me for everything I know about Gerudo culture – beyond what we already saw when we camped with them."

"The Zoras would be no good on a horse ranch… they're going to seek out the rivers and springs."

"There's a small lake near here, on the other side of those mountains."

"Perfect. Rock… I don't know what's with him. He barely survived the Stone Dagger Pass for the cold, and he up and wants to start a settlement in the mountains and name it after some revered ancient leader of the Gorons – Dar-Dar….something."

"Darunia?" Link offered, "He was the ancient Sage of Fire. Some think those Sages are just a legend, awakened in a world-that-never-was, but, no… they were awakened all the same."

"How would you know?"

"I just do… saw it in a dream, I think – a dream that felt real. Another life, perhaps."

Ilia stared at Link. The words of the old Gerudo healer-woman came to her – her talk of Heroes and reincarnation. She shook her head before looking forward.

"That and I've met other Sages, the ones currently keeping the wisdom of Hyrule. They seemed to know who the 'mortal Sages' were. The legends are true, according to them."

"Ah. Met during the Twilight War I take it?"

"Yes, though Hyrule is bereft the Sage of Water. That one was slain by Ganondorf, but still exists somewhere as a spirit."

"I am trying to remember the old stories Rusl used to tell us…" Ilia began, "There were seven Sages taken from Hyrule's races – some races that are among us, and some that are currently extinct. There was a leader of them, the Princess of Destiny, I think – the ancient Queen Zelda. One was of Light, one of the first Hylians. One was of Shadow, of the now-extinct Sheikah ethnic group. One was of Fire, a Goron. One was of Water, a Zora. One was a little Kokiri – Sage of Forest, right? And, yes, the ancient Gerudo leader, Nabooru… oh, poor Nabooru! Oh, Link, an old woman of the Tanatri Tribe told me all about her!"

"She was brave," was all Link had to say about that. "As for Rock's settlement," he continued, "It makes perfect sense to me. Gorons don't like the cold, but if a mountain has the right minerals, they'd be willing to take it. He's a prospector – looking for a place with a reasonable food supply to support a grouping of his people."

The two looked quietly out over the rolling plains and to the various mountains and lines of forest beyond. Link coughed and cleared his throat. "This place will all be settled-in eventually," he said with a touch of sadness. "I've watched Random and the homesteads around it grow. It's just going to grow more. A large part of me would like to see it stay wilderness forever…"

"Even Hyrule-proper has wilderness," Ilia offered.

"Patches of it, and all over ruins. Hyrule-proper is ancient. This is fresh. It won't stay fresh."

"Less world for a wolf to run."

"Exactly. But… the people of Hyrule… will have room to grow. These lands are a very good thing for our people." Link gestured toward the distant mountains and to the gold-lighted grasses. "Think about it, Ilia. One day, there will be cities and towns everywhere. People will build them, building their dreams. People who cannot afford dreams back home will be able to have them here – people who are brave, and our people… our people are brave. People will name the cities after that which is important to them – probably those ancient Sages. The town of Darunia will be first, of course, if Rock gets his way… then Nabooru, Saria by one of the great rivers…"

"You are imagining quite a lot."

"I have the space to."

"So, where's this Lin ranch?"

"Not far."

Another pause. They listened to the sound of the horses' hooves beneath them, plodding gently and to the creak of the caravan wagons, now somewhat distant behind them.

"I don't think I want to be alone anymore," Link said suddenly.

"Hmm?"

"You said you'd need help building your ranch. I think I want to help you."

"Link, really?"

"Yeah," the man sighed. "Epona's getting stiff in the joints. She could use a retirement, a nice place to stay. I cannot say I can ever give up wandering completely. I have my relationship with the Tantari Tribe – I need to keep on good terms with them. Also, there are my instincts from being another species. I am going to be vanishing for weeks or months at a time, now. I'll always let you know when the wanderlust hits and make sure you're going to be okay on your own, but if it's okay with you, can you do that? When a wolf meanders home to scratch at your door, will you let him in?"

"Of course," Ilia said with the broadest smile imaginable. "And I'll bend down to hug him, and pet him, and I'll have a warm bed ready for his cold, aching bones as long as he tries to keep the fleas off it."

Link smiled gratefully.

"Does this mean your heart is ready? I heard that you lost someone long ago."

"I did," Link said. "But yes, my heart is ready to no longer be lonely. "When I first retreated to these wild lands, I was searching for something – specifically for a way to return to someone. I never found it, but I found… so much more over the years – more than I ever could have imagined. I suppose life is like that, and dreams. Many are they that set out with one dream and end up with another."

Ilia smiled at him. "Then let's dream together."

* * *

_**The party has reached its destination, but the future is ever open. **_

_**The trail will wind ever onward, always forward. **_

**THE END. **


End file.
